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1 The Wistar Institute; 2 Center for Epidemiology and Biostatistics and 3 Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania; Departments of 4 Pathology, 5 Medicine, and 6 Surgery, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and 7 Department of Transfusion Medicine Clinical Center, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland
Requests for reprints: Dorothee Herlyn, Immunology Program, The Wistar Institute, 3601 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104. Phone: 215-898-3962; Fax: 215-898-0980; E-mail: dherlyn{at}wistar.org.
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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A few human CD4+ Th cell lines and clones directed against various tumors have been described (37). Th antigens are usually recognized by MHC class IIrestricted CD4+ Th cells after processing by antigen-presenting cells (APC) through the exogenous pathway.
Although peptides derived from tumor antigens originally defined by MHC class Irestricted CTL have been shown to stimulate Th cells (reviewed in ref. 8), peptide vaccines have not held promise in clinical trials (reviewed in ref. 9). Antigen vaccines expressing multiple potentially immunogenic epitopes may be superior to peptide vaccines expressing only a single epitope (10). Antigens recognized by noncytolytic MHC class IIrestricted CD4+ T cells have been cloned using the Ii-cDNA fusion approach (1116).
In the present study, we have cloned, using a novel antigen phage display approach, a Th antigen shared between melanomas and gliomas, each derived from various patients. A peptide derived from this antigen is recognized by the lymphocytes of several melanoma patients but not healthy donors.
| Materials and Methods |
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23 years ago. All other melanoma patients included in this study had metastatic lesions excised between 2002 and 2005. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were obtained from the patients' peripheral blood on the day of surgery (3522, 3523, 3626, and 3704) or up to 24 months after surgery (all other patients) with informed consent and under approved protocols. Cell lines. Melanoma cell line WM35, EBV-B35 cell line, and Th35-1A Th cell clone were established and maintained in culture as described (7). COS-7L cells (Life Technologies-Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA) were maintained in DMEM (Life Technologies-Invitrogen) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum.
Antibodies. Anti-HLA class II antibody B33.1 directed to HLA-DR was obtained from B. Perussia (Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA) and normal mouse IgG from Cappel-ICN (Costa Mesa, CA). FITC-conjugated antihuman CD4 antibody (clone RPA-T4) and APC-conjugated antihuman interleukin-2 (IL-2) antibody (clone MQ1-17h12) were obtained from eBioscience (San Diego, CA).
Th antigen cloning approach using antigen phage displayoverview. The currently used molecular cloning approach of HLA class IIdependent human melanoma and colon carcinoma antigens is based on fusing cDNA tumor libraries to MHC invariant chain (Ii) fragments with the aim of targeting the fusion proteins to the endosomal and lysosomal compartments (6). Fused libraries were transfected into 293 cells genetically engineered to express DR
, DRß, DMA, DMB, and Ii and screened for reactivity with CD4+ T cells (Fig. 1, left
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cDNA library construction and screening. mRNA was isolated from cultured WM35 cells using the FastTrack 2.0 kit (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA). PolyA+ RNA was converted to cDNA using the OrientExpress system (EMD Biosciences Novagen, La Jolla, CA) and ligated into T7Select10-3b vector (EMD Biosciences Novagen) according to the manufacturer's instructions. The ligated DNA was packed in vitro using T7 packing extract. The library was 1.2 x 106 phages and was amplified on plates once and divided into 100 phages per pool. For screening, each pool was amplified once in liquid culture, and released phages were purified twice by polyethylene glycol/NaCl precipitation. The phage titers were determined, and
3 x 103 phages were used per well of 96-well microtiter plate (392 wells screened) in lymphocyte proliferation and IFN-
release assays (see below). Phages from one pool stimulated proliferation and IFN-
release in Th35-1A cells. Stimulatory pools were subdivided until a single positive phage was identified.
Lymphocyte proliferation assay. This assay was done as described (17). For screening of Th35-1A cell reactivity with phage libraries, Th cells (1 x 104 to 2 x 104 per well of 96-well round-bottomed microtiter plates; Corning, Corning, NY) were cultured with irradiated autologous EBV-B cells (104 per well) prepulsed with 1 x 103 to 3 x 103 phages. To determine Th or PBMC reactivity with peptide, adherent monocytes (5 x 104 per well, obtained from PBMC) prepulsed with various concentrations (3.150 µmol/L) of peptide were incubated with Th35-1A cells or PBMC (5 x 104 per well). Th cells or PBMC were stimulated with peptide-pulsed monocytes once or twice. Proliferative responses of lymphocytes were determined by standard [3H]thymidine ([3H]Tdr) incorporation assay. All determinations were done in triplicate. The lymphocyte proliferation inhibition assay with anti-HLA class II antibody B33.1 was done as described (17).
IFN-
release assay. Supernatants obtained 48 h after Th cell stimulation with phage-pulsed EBV-B cells were tested for the presence of IFN-
using an ELISA kit (Endogen, Rockford, IL).
Intracellular staining of lymphocytes for IL-2. Peptide-pulsed monocytes (see above) were incubated with lymphocytes at 37°C and cultures were treated with Golgi Stop (2 µmol/L; BD Biosciences, San Diego, CA) after 1 h. Five hours later, nonadherent cells were stained for CD4 and intracellular IL-2 using a kit (BD Biosciences). Samples were analyzed by CyAn ADP cytometer (DakoCytomation, Fort Collins, CO) and data were analyzed using FlowJo software (Ashland, OR).
DNA sequencing. DNA sequencing was done by The Wistar Institute's DNA sequencing facility. DNA and deduced amino acid sequence (ExPASy)8 comparisons were done with the BLAST program.9
Peptide design. Potentially DRB1*070101 binding epitopes were determined from the deduced amino acid sequence by using the Rammensee epitope prediction model10 and were limited to epitopes with a binding score of >20. Selected peptides were synthesized and high-pressure liquid chromatography purified by Invitrogen. The following peptides were used: VGLIAARRTGRLRGT, with a score of 24 [peptide 1, ribosomal protein L8 (RPL8) position 235249]; TGRLRGTKTVQEKEN, with a score of 24 (peptide 2, RPL8 position 243257); and RPGLLGASVLGLDDI, with a score of 22 (control peptide, telomerase reverse transcriptase).
Full-length RPL8 cloning. The GeneRacer kit (Invitrogen) and oligonucleotides based on the cDNA sequence of the phage that stimulated Th35-1A cell proliferation were used to determine the 5' and 3' end of RPL8 mRNA in WM35 cells. Both fragments (5' and 3' end) were sequenced and oligonucleotides were designed to clone full-length RPL8 cDNA by reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR; SuperScript III One-Step RT-PCR with Platinum Taq; Invitrogen).
Northern blot analysis. Northern blot analysis was done according to standard procedures. RNA levels were compared using a Storm PhosphorImager system (GE Healthcare, Piscataway, NJ).
Real-time PCR. Single-strand cDNA derived from tumor cells was subjected to real-time PCR using Power SYBR Green PCR Master Mix (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA) and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), actin, or RPL8-specific primers on an ABI Prism 7000 Sequencing Detection System (Applied Biosystems). The data were analyzed using 7000 System SDS software (Applied Biosystems).
Statistical analyses. Differences between experimental and control values were analyzed for significance by Student's two-sided t test or nonparametric Wilcoxon test using Proc NPAR1WAY in SAS/STAT software (SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, NC).
| Results |
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release in Th35-1A cells. The clone had an insert of 189 bp, encoding an open reading frame of 58 amino acids, and represented the COOH-terminal part of RPL8 (18). The nucleotide sequence of full-length RPL8 subsequently cloned from WM35 melanoma cells was 100% identical with the published RPL8 sequence (Genbank GI:15431305; data not shown). Thus, the WM35 antigen recognized by Th35-1A cells was not mutated, which is in contrast to the other cloned mutated Th antigens or Th antigens using alternative reading frames (1216). Epitope determination. To confirm that RPL8 was recognized by Th35-1A, we determined the peptide epitope recognized by Th35-1A. This epitope was predicted to associate with HLA-DR7 (7). The deduced amino acid sequence of the cloned cDNA contains two potential DR7 (DRB1*070101) binding sites (see Materials and Methods). Only peptide 2 (TGRLRGTKTVQEKEN) was recognized by Th35-1A after presentation by autologous monocytes, and peptide recognition was HLA class II dependent (Fig. 2A ). Th35-1A proliferation was peptide concentration dependent (Fig. 2B). Allogeneic DR7+ monocytes presented peptide 2 to Th35-1A cells (Fig. 2C), whereas DR7 monocytes did not (Fig. 2D).
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| Discussion |
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Antigen phage display is a novel and powerful approach to the cloning of MHC class IIdependent antigens recognized by CD4+ MHC class IIrestricted T cells. Using this approach, we have cloned RPL8, which is shared by melanomas (this study and ref. 7), gliomas (7), colorectal carcinomas (19), and ovarian carcinomas (20).
Antigen recognition by Th35 is HLA-DR7 restricted (7), and a putatively HLA-DR7 binding peptide of RPL8 stimulated Th35 cells in an HLA class IIrestricted manner. Moreover, RPL8 peptide-specific lymphocytes could be detected in four of nine HLA-DR7+ melanoma patients but not in HLA-DR7 patients or healthy donors. There was no statistically significant correlation between melanoma status (stable versus progressive disease) and lymphocyte responses or RPL8 RNA levels of tumor cells and lymphocyte responses. Furthermore, recognition of allogeneic tumor cells by Th35 was independent of tumor RNA level. Interestingly, RPL8 may contain additional epitopes presented by a broad range of HLA class I/II alleles (i.e. A1, A2, A3, A24, B7, B44, B51, DR1, DR4, and DR11), based on preliminary algorithm screens. This suggests that this antigen may represent an important vaccine target in patients bearing RPL8+ tumors.
| Acknowledgments |
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The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
We thank Jeffrey Faust and Matthew Farabaugh for flow cytometry analysis and Andrea Raymond for her help with real-time PCR.
| Footnotes |
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8 http://us.expasy.org/tools/dna.html ![]()
9 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/blast ![]()
11 http://genome-www5.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/source/sourceResult ![]()
Received 7/26/06. Revised 2/23/07. Accepted 3/ 1/07.
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