Apoptosis-regulated low avidity cancer-specific CD8+ T cells can be rescued to eliminate HER-2/neu expressing tumors by costimulatory agonists in tolerized mice
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ABSTRACT: A major barrier of vaccines as cancer treatment is their failure to activate and maintain a complete cancer-specific CD8+ effector T cell repertoire. Low avidity T cells are more likely to escape clonal deletion in the thymus when compared to higher avidity T cells, and therefore comprise the major population of effector T cells available for activation in cancer patients. However, low avidity T cells fail to traffic into the tumor microenvironment and function in eradicating tumor under optimal vaccination conditions as opposed to higher avidity T cells that escape clonal deletion and do function in tumor killing. We utilized high and low avidity TCR transgenic CD8+ T cells specific for the immunodominant epitope of HER-2/neu (RNEU420-429) to identify signaling pathways responsible for the inferior activity of low avidity T cells. Adoptive transfer of these cells into tumor-bearing vaccinated mice identified members of apoptosis pathways as being upregulated in low avidity T cells. The increased expression of pro-apoptotic proteins by low avidity T cells promoted their own cell death and also that of other tumor-specific CD8+ T cells within their local environment. Importantly, this pro-apoptotic effect was overcome using a strong costimulatory signal that prevents activation-induced cell death and enables low avidity T cells to traffic into the tumor and assist in tumor clearance. These findings identify new therapeutic opportunities for activating the most potent anticancer T cell responses.
ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus
PROVIDER: GSE54020 | GEO | 2014/01/14
SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA234368
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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