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Targeted Elimination of Immunodominant B Cells Drives the Germinal Center Reaction toward Subdominant Epitopes.

ABSTRACT: Rapidly evolving pathogens such as HIV or influenza can quickly mutate their antigenic profiles, reducing the efficacy of conventional vaccines. Despite this challenge, functionally required epitopes are highly conserved among heterologous viral strains and represent a key vulnerability that could be targeted during vaccine development. As the antigenicity of these conserved epitopes is frequently subdominant, there is a critical need for innovative vaccination strategies designed to target these neutralizing epitopes. Here, we immunized mice with antigens containing discrete immunodominant and subdominant moieties and show that treatment with soluble heterologous antigen bearing only the immunodominant epitope selectively suppresses these germinal center (GC) B cells. By exploiting this intrinsic tolerance mechanism, we promote the expansion of subdominant B cells in the GC and the subsequent long-lived components of the humoral response. We propose that this strategy may be applied to elicit preferential expansion of subdominant B cells that recognize weakly immunogenic epitopes on microbial pathogens.

SUBMITTER: Silva M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5771444 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Targeted Elimination of Immunodominant B Cells Drives the Germinal Center Reaction toward Subdominant Epitopes.

Silva Murillo M Nguyen Thao H TH Philbrook Phaethon P Chu Matthew M Sears Olivia O Hatfield Stephen S Abbott Robert K RK Kelsoe Garnett G Sitkovsky Michail V MV

Cell reports 20171201 13

Rapidly evolving pathogens such as HIV or influenza can quickly mutate their antigenic profiles, reducing the efficacy of conventional vaccines. Despite this challenge, functionally required epitopes are highly conserved among heterologous viral strains and represent a key vulnerability that could be targeted during vaccine development. As the antigenicity of these conserved epitopes is frequently subdominant, there is a critical need for innovative vaccination strategies designed to target thes ...[more]

PMID: 29281817

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Project description:Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) causes a lifelong infection of neurons that innervate barrier sites like the skin and mucosal surfaces like the eye. After primary infection of the cornea, the virus enters latency within the trigeminal ganglion (TG), from which it can reactivate throughout the life of the host. Viral latency is maintained, in part, by virus-specific CD8+ T cells that nonlethally interact with infected neurons. When CD8+ T cell responses are inhibited, HSV-1 can reactivate, and these recurrent reactivation events can lead to blinding scarring of the cornea. In the C57BL/6 mouse, CD8+ T cells specific for the immunodominant epitope from glycoprotein B maintain functionality throughout latency, while CD8+ T cells specific for subdominant epitopes undergo functional impairment that is associated with the expression of the inhibitory checkpoint molecule programmed death 1 (PD-1). Here, we investigate the checkpoint molecule T cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain-containing 3 (Tim-3), which has traditionally been associated with CD8+ T cell exhaustion. Unexpectedly, we found that Tim-3 was preferentially expressed on highly functional ganglionic CD8+ T cells during acute and latent HSV-1 infection. This, paired with data that show that Tim-3 expression on CD8+ T cells in the latently infected TG is influenced by viral gene expression, suggests that Tim-3 is an indicator of recent T cell stimulation, rather than functional compromise, in this model. We conclude that Tim-3 expression is not sufficient to define functional compromise during latency; however, it may be useful in identifying activated cells within the TG during HSV-1 infection.IMPORTANCE Without an effective means of eliminating HSV-1 from latently infected neurons, efforts to control the virus have centered on preventing viral reactivation from latency. Virus-specific CD8+ T cells within the infected TG have been shown to play a crucial role in inhibiting viral reactivation, and with a portion of these cells exhibiting functional impairment, checkpoint molecule immunotherapies have presented a potential solution to enhancing the antiviral response of these cells. In pursuing this potential treatment strategy, we found that Tim-3 (often associated with CD8+ T cell functional exhaustion) is not upregulated on impaired cells but instead is upregulated on highly functional cells that have recently received antigenic stimulation. These findings support a role for Tim-3 as a marker of activation rather than exhaustion in this model, and we provide additional evidence for the hypothesis that there is persistent viral gene expression in the HSV-1 latently infected TG.

Dataset Information

Targeted Elimination of Immunodominant B Cells Drives the Germinal Center Reaction toward Subdominant Epitopes.

Publications

Targeted Elimination of Immunodominant B Cells Drives the Germinal Center Reaction toward Subdominant Epitopes.

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