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Tolerance induction in memory CD4 T cells requires two rounds of antigen-specific activation.

ABSTRACT: A major goal for immunotherapy is to tolerize the immune cells that coordinate tissue damage in autoimmune and alloantigen responses. CD4 T cells play a central role in many of these conditions and improved antigen-specific regulation or removal of these cells could revolutionize current treatments. A confounding factor is that little is known about whether and how tolerance is induced in memory CD4 T cells. We used MHC class II tetramers to track and analyze a population of endogenous antigen-specific memory CD4 T cells exposed to soluble peptide in the absence of adjuvant. We found that such memory T cells proliferated and reentered the memory pool apparently unperturbed by the incomplete activation signals provided by the peptide. Upon further restimulation in vivo, CD4 memory T cells that had been previously exposed to peptide proliferated, provided help to primary responding B cells, and migrated to inflamed sites. However, these reactivated memory cells failed to survive. The reduction in T-cell number was marked by low expression of the antiapoptotic molecule B cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl2) and increased expression of activated caspase molecules. Consequently, these cells failed to sustain a delayed-type hypersensitivity response. Moreover, following two separate exposures to soluble antigen, no T-cell recall response and no helper activity for B cells could be detected. These results suggest that the induction of tolerance in memory CD4 T cells is possible but that deletion and permanent removal of the antigen-specific T cells requires reactivation following exposure to the tolerogenic antigen.

SUBMITTER: David A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4040609 | biostudies-literature | 2014 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Tolerance induction in memory CD4 T cells requires two rounds of antigen-specific activation.

David Alexandria A Crawford Frances F Garside Paul P Kappler John W JW Marrack Philippa P MacLeod Megan M

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20140512 21

A major goal for immunotherapy is to tolerize the immune cells that coordinate tissue damage in autoimmune and alloantigen responses. CD4 T cells play a central role in many of these conditions and improved antigen-specific regulation or removal of these cells could revolutionize current treatments. A confounding factor is that little is known about whether and how tolerance is induced in memory CD4 T cells. We used MHC class II tetramers to track and analyze a population of endogenous antigen-s ...[more]

PMID: 24821788

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Project description:Allergen immunotherapy presents an opportunity to define mechanisms of induction of clinical tolerance in humans. Significant progress has been made in our understanding of changes in T cell responses during immunotherapy, but existing work has largely been based on functional T cell assays. HLA-peptide-tetrameric complexes allow the tracking of antigen-specific T-cell populations based on the presence of specific T-cell receptors and when combined with functional assays allow a closer assessment of the potential roles of T-cell anergy and clonotype evolution. We sought to develop tools to facilitate tracking of antigen-specific T-cell populations during wasp-venom immunotherapy in people with wasp-venom allergy. We first defined dominant immunogenic regions within Ves v 5, a constituent of wasp venom that is known to represent a target antigen for T-cells. We next identified HLA-DRB1*1501 restricted epitopes and used HLA class II tetrameric complexes alongside cytokine responses to Ves v 5 to track T-cell responses during immunotherapy. In contrast to previous reports, we show that there was a significant initial induction of IL-4 producing antigen-specific T-cells within the first 3-5 weeks of immunotherapy which was followed by reduction of circulating effector antigen-specific T-cells despite escalation of wasp-venom dosage. However, there was sustained induction of IL-10-producing and FOXP3 positive antigen-specific T cells. We observed that these IL-10 producing cells could share a common precursor with IL-4-producing T cells specific for the same epitope. Clinical tolerance induction in humans is associated with dynamic changes in frequencies of antigen-specific T-cells, with a marked loss of IL-4-producing T-cells and the acquisition of IL-10-producing and FOXP3-positive antigen-specific CD4+ T-cells that can derive from a common shared precursor to pre-treatment effector T-cells. The development of new approaches to track antigen specific T-cell responses during immunotherapy can provide novel insights into mechanisms of tolerance induction in humans and identify new potential treatment targets.

Dataset Information

Tolerance induction in memory CD4 T cells requires two rounds of antigen-specific activation.

Publications

Tolerance induction in memory CD4 T cells requires two rounds of antigen-specific activation.

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