Peptide-specific, allogeneic T cell response in vitro induced by a self-peptide binding to HLA-A2
Peptide-specific,allogeneic T cell response in vitro induced by a self-peptide binding to HLA-A2

The role of the bound peptide in alloreactive T-cell recognition is controversial, ranging from peptide-independent to peptide-specific recognition of alloreactive T-cells. The aim of this study is to find the evidence that there exist peptide/MHC complex (pMHC)-specific CTLs among alloreactive T cells generated with long-term mixed lymphocytes culture (LTMLC). A single pMHC was manipulated by loading the TAP-defective, HLA-A2 expressing T2 cells with a viral peptide (LMP2A426–434) or a self-peptide (Tyr369–377). The PBLs samples from 4 HLA-A2 positive (HLA-A2+ve) and 4 HLA-A2 negative (HLA-A2-ve) donors were included in this study. The HLA-A2+ve PBL co-cultured with the LMP2A426–434 pulsed T2 (T2/LMP) stands for the nominal T-cell response to a viral antigen, and the HLA-A2-ve PBLs co-cultured with the Tyr369–377 pulsed T2 (T2/Tyr) for alloreactive T-cell response to an allogeneic antigen. The specificity of the expanded CTLs after the LTMLC was detected by their specific cytotoxicity and binding ability to specific pMHC-tetramer. An HLA-A2 restricted, HIV peptide (Gag77–85) was included for control. The cultural bulk of HLA-A2+ve PBLs with the T2/LMP showed an elevated specific cytotoxicity against the T2/LMP compared to that against the T2/HIV (26.52%±3.72% vs 7.01%±0.87%, P<0.001), and an increased frequency of binding to LMP-tetramer compared to that binding to HIV-tetramer (0.98%±0.33% vs 0.05%±0.01%, P=0.0014). The cultural bulk of HLA-A2-ve PBLs with the T2/Tyr showed a more active cytotoxicity against the T2/Tyr than that against T2/HIV (28.07%±2.58% vs 6.87%±1.01%, P<0.001), and a higher frequency of binding to the Tyr-tetramer than that binding to the HIV-tetramer (0.88%±0.3% vs 0.06%±0.03%, P=0.0018). Our results indicate that the LTMLC is able to expand the viral antigen-specific CTLs as well as allogeneic antigen-specific CTLs. A relatively large proportion of alloreactive CTLs should be pMHC-specific, i.e., the specificity of the alloreactive lines depends on both the bound peptide and the allotype of MHC. Our observations support the hypothesis that the cumulative effect of T cells specific to each peptide epitope could account for the strength and diversity of the alloresponse. The method using manipulated pMHC and the LTMLC to generate pMHC-specific, alloreactive CTLs is of potential importance for adoptive T-cell immunotherapy. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 30271201 and 30490241), and the “973” Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Grant No. 2001CB510008)