Project description:The TAP transporter is responsible for transferring cytosolic peptides into the ER where they can be loaded onto MHC molecules. Deletion of TAP results in a drastic reduction of MHC surface expression and alters the presented peptide pattern. Using the TAP deficient cell line LCL721.174 and its TAP expressing progenitor cell line LCL721.45, we have identified and quantified more than 160 HLA ligands, 50 out of which were presented TAP independently. Peptides which were predominantly presented on the TAP deficient LCL721.174 cell line had a decreased MHC binding affinity according to their SYFPEITHI and BIMAS score. About half of the identified TAP independently presented peptides were not derived from signal sequences and may partly be generated by the proteasome. Furthermore, we have excluded that different HLA presentation ratios were due to varying expression of the respective protein or due to changes in the antigen loading complex. Features of TAP-independently presented peptides as well as proteasomal contribution to their generation provides an insight into basic immunological mechanisms. Keywords: differential mass spectrometry, TAP independent, antigen presentation
Project description:The TAP transporter is responsible for transferring cytosolic peptides into the ER where they can be loaded onto MHC molecules. Deletion of TAP results in a drastic reduction of MHC surface expression and alters the presented peptide pattern. Using the TAP deficient cell line LCL721.174 and its TAP expressing progenitor cell line LCL721.45, we have identified and quantified more than 160 HLA ligands, 50 out of which were presented TAP independently. Peptides which were predominantly presented on the TAP deficient LCL721.174 cell line had a decreased MHC binding affinity according to their SYFPEITHI and BIMAS score. About half of the identified TAP independently presented peptides were not derived from signal sequences and may partly be generated by the proteasome. Furthermore, we have excluded that different HLA presentation ratios were due to varying expression of the respective protein or due to changes in the antigen loading complex. Features of TAP-independently presented peptides as well as proteasomal contribution to their generation provides an insight into basic immunological mechanisms. Experiment Overall Design: Two B-LCL cell lines (TAP1/2 +/+ and TAP1/2 -/-) were compared in their gene and protein expression as well as in their HLA peptide repertoire
Project description:The immune response against tuberculosis relies, at least in part, on CD4+ T cells. Protective vaccines require the induction of antigen-specific CD4+ T cells via mycobacterial peptides presented by MHC class-II in infected macrophages. We have purified MHC class-I and MHC-II peptides and analysed them by mass spectrometry. We have successfully identified 97 mycobacterial peptides presented by MHC-II and 54 presented by MHC-I, from 76 and 41 antigens, respectively. The sequences of selected peptides were confirmed by spectral match validation and immunogenicity evaluated by IFN-gamma ELISpot against peripheral blood mononuclear cells from volunteers vaccinated with BCG, M.tb latently infected subjects or patients with tuberculosis disease. Three antigens were expressed in viral vectors, and evaluated as vaccine candidates alone or in combination in a murine aerosol M.tb challenge model. When delivered in combination, the three candidate vaccines conferred significant protection in the lungs and spleen compared with BCG alone, demonstrating proof-of-concept for this unbiased approach to identifying novel candidate antigens.
Project description:CD4+ T cells orchestrate the adaptive immune response against pathogens and cancer by recognizing epitopes presented on MHC-II molecules. The high polymorphism of MHC-II genes represents an important hurdle towards accurate predictions of CD4+ T-cell epitopes in different individuals and different species. Here we generated and curated a dataset of 627,013 unique MHC-II ligands identified by mass spectrometry. This enabled us to determine the binding motifs of 88 MHC-II alleles across human, mouse, cattle and chicken. Analysis of these binding specificities combined with X-ray crystallography refined our understanding of the molecular determinants of MHC-II motifs and revealed a widespread reverse binding mode in MHC-II ligands. We then developed a machine learning framework to accurately predict binding specificities and ligands of any MHC-II allele. This tool improves and expands predictions of CD4+ T-cell epitopes, as demonstrated by the identification of several viral and bacterial epitopes following the aforementioned reverse binding mode.
Project description:The majority of peptides presented by MHC class I results from proteasomal protein turnover. The specialized immunoproteasome, which is induced during inflammation, plays a major role in antigenic peptide generation. However, other cellular proteases can, either alone or together with the proteasome, contribute peptides for MHC class I loading non-canonically. We used an im-munopeptidomics workflow combined with a prediction software for proteasomal cleavage probabilities to analyze how inflammatory conditions affect proteasomal processing of immune epitopes presented by A549 cells. Treatment of A549 cells with IFNγ enhanced proteasomal cleavage probability of MHC class I ligands for both, the constitutive proteasome and the im-munoproteasome. Furthermore, IFNγ alters the contribution of the different HLA allotypes to the immunopeptidome. When we calculated HLA allotype-specific proteasomal cleavage probabili-ties for MHC class I ligands, peptides presented by HLA-A*30:01 showed characteristics hinting at a reduced C-terminal proteasomal cleavage probability independently of the type of proteasome. This was confirmed by HLA-A*30:01 ligands from the immune epitope database, which also showed this effect. Furthermore, two additional HLA allotypes, namely HLA-A*03:01 and HLA-A*11:01, presented peptides with a markedly reduced C-terminal proteasomal cleavage probability. Peptides eluted from all three HLA allotypes shared a peptide binding motif with a C-terminal lysine residue suggesting that this lysine residue impairs proteasome-dependent HLA ligand production and might, in turn, favor peptide generation by other cellular proteases. The mass spectrometry raw files used in this study were originally produced for a previous publication, where they were utilized to address the influence of cigarette smoke on the antiviral T-cell immune response. Here, we have reanalyzed the data to investigate processing of MHC class I ligands by c20S or i20S, respectively. Original publication: Chen, J.; Wang, X.; Schmalen, A.; Haines, S.; Wolff, M.; Ma, H.; Zhang, H.; Stoleriu, M.G.; Nowak, J.; Nakayama, M.; et al. Antiviral CD8(+) T cell immune responses are impaired by cigarette smoke and in COPD. Eur Respir J 2023, doi:10.1183/13993003.01374-2022.
Project description:To understand and treat immunology-related diseases, a comprehensive, unbiased characterization of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) peptide ligands is of key importance. Preceding the analysis by mass spectrometry, MHC peptide ligands are typically isolated by MHC immunoaffinity chromatography (MHC-IAC). Less often, mild acid elution (MAE) is used to extract MHC class I peptide ligands. MAE may provide a cheap alternative to MHC-IAC for suspension cells, but it is thought to be hampered by the high number of contaminating peptides not derived from the MHC. Here, we optimized the MAE protocol yielding MHC peptide ligand purities of more than 80%. We discovered distinct cysteinylation frequencies at individual positions of MHC peptide ligands and propose that MAE conserves the native cysteinylation pattern of MHC peptide ligands better than MHC-IAC. Key features of the observed cysteinylation pattern were independent of the applied fragmentation methods HCD or EThcD. Our improved and carefully documented MAE workflow represents a high-quality, cost-effective alternative to MHC-IAC for suspension cells and should be applicable also in laboratories not specialized in MHC peptide ligand analyses.
Project description:Oncolytic viruses (OVs), known for their cancer-killing characteristics, overturn tumor-associated defects in antigen presentation through the MHC class I pathway and induce protective neo antitumor CD8 T cell responses. Nonetheless, whether OVs shape the tumor MHC-I ligandome remains unknown. Here, we investigated if an OV induces the presentation of novel MHC I-bound tumor antigens (termed tumor MHC-I ligands). Using comparative mass spectrometry (MS)-based MHC-I ligandomics, we determined differential tumor MHC-I ligand expression following treatment with oncolytic reovirus in a murine ovarian cancer model. In vitro we found that reovirus induces the presentation of tumor MHC-I ligands in cancer cells. Concurrent multiplexed quantitative proteomics revealed that the changes in tumor MHC-I ligand presentation were mostly independent of reovirus-induced alterations of their source proteins. In an in vivo model, tumor MHC-I ligands were induced by reovirus in tumors but also, more importantly, analysis of spleens (a source of antigen-presenting cells) showed exclusive induction of most MHC-I ligands occurred in tumor-bearing mice. Finally, IFNγ assays demonstrated immunogenicity of the reovirus-induced MHC-I ligands. OV-induced MHC-I responses may be exploited in combinatorial approaches to promote the efficacy of cancer immunotherapies.
Project description:In order to identify relevant targets for cancer immunotherapy in breast cancer, we characterized the immunopeptidome of 26 primary breast cancer samples with a proteogenomic approach relying on RNA-seq and mass spectrometry (MS). We were able to describe the landscape of MHC-I associated peptides presented by breast cancer tumors. Furthermore, bioinformatic analysis allowed us to identify tumor-specific and tumor associated antigens, which can be used for the development of anti-cancer vaccines or as targets for engineered T-cells.