The pressing need for a better experimental system for AIDS research has brought into sharp focus the shortcomings of available animal models and the practical and ethical limitations of studies of immune responses and viral pathogenesis in humans. Current studies of the human immune responses are limited to relatively restrictive in vivo experiments and several in vitro systems that, although useful, allow only short-term studies and support responses to a few antigens. Neither model is particularly amenable to studies of the pathogenesis of diseases of the immune system. We report here that injection of human peripheral blood leukocytes (PBL) can result in the stable long-term reconstitution of a functional human immune system in mice with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). Human PBL transplanted to SCID mice increase in number and survive for at least six months; reconstituted mice show spontaneous secretion of human immunoglobulin and a specific human antibody response is induced following immunization with tetanus toxoid. All of the major cell populations present in PBL are found in the lymphoid tissue and blood of SCID recipients, although the relative proportions of B cells, T-cell subsets and monocytes/macrophages in long-term recipients differ from those found in normal PBL and, in mice transplanted with 50 x 10(6) or more PBL from Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-seropositive donors, EBV-positive B-cell lymphomas often develop. Our results suggest that xenogeneic transplantation of human lymphoid cells into SCID mice may provide a useful model for the study of normal human immune function, the response of the immune system to pathogenic agents and early events in lymphomagensis.
While in many cases the half-life of T cell receptor (TCR) binding to a particular ligand is a good predictor of activation potential, numerous exceptions suggest that other physical parameter(s) must also play a role. Accordingly, we analyzed the thermodynamics of TCR binding to a series of peptide-MHC ligands, three of which are more stimulatory than their stability of binding would predict. Strikingly, we find that during TCR binding these outliers show anomalously large changes in heat capacity, an indicator of conformational change or flexibility in a binding interaction. By combining the values for heat capacity (DeltaCp) and the half-life of TCR binding (t(1/2)), we find that we can accurately predict the degree of T cell stimulation. Structural analysis shows significant changes in the central TCR contact residue of the peptide-MHC, indicating that structural rearrangements within the TCR-peptide-MHC interface can contribute to T cell activation.
Nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice spontaneously develop insulitis and destruction of pancreatic islet β cells similar to type 1 diabetes mellitis in humans. Insulitis also occurs in the BDC2.5 TCR transgenic line of NOD mice that express the rearranged TCR α- and β-chain genes of a diabetogenic NOD CD4 T cell clone. When activated with syngeneic islet cells in culture, BDC2.5 T cells adoptively transfer disease to NOD recipients, but the identity of the islet cell Ag responsible for pathogenicity is not known. To characterize the autoantigen(s) involved, BDC2.5 T cells were used to screen a combinatorial peptide library arranged in a positional scanning format. We identified more than 100 decapeptides that stimulate these T cells at nanomolar concentrations; they are then capable of transferring disease to NOD-scid mice. Surprisingly, some of the peptides include sequences similar (8 of 10 residues) to those found within the 528–539 fragment of glutamic acid decarboxylase 65. Although this 12-mer glutamic acid decarboxylase 65 fragment is only slightly stimulatory for BDC2.5 T cells (EC50 > 100 μM), a larger 16-mer fragment, 526–541, shows activity in the low micromolar range (EC50 = 2.3 μM). Finally, T cells from prediabetic NOD mice respond spontaneously to these peptide analogs in culture; this finding validates them as being related to a critical autoantigen involved in the etiology of spontaneous diabetes and indicates that their further characterization is important for a better understanding of underlying disease mechanisms.
One approach to enhancing the T cell response to tumors is vaccination with mimotopes, mimics of tumor epitopes. While mimotopes can stimulate proliferation of T cells that recognize tumor-associated antigens (TAAs), this expansion does not always correlate with control of tumor growth. We hypothesized that vaccination with mimotopes of optimal affinity in this interaction will improve antitumor immunity. Using a combinatorial peptide library and a cytotoxic T lymphocyte clone that recognizes a TAA, we identified a panel of mimotopes that, when complexed with MHC, bound the TAA-specific TCR with a range of affinities. As expected, in vitro assays showed that the affinity of the TCR-peptide-MHC (TCR-pMHC) interaction correlated with activity of the T cell clone. However, only vaccination with mimotopes in the intermediate-affinity range elicited functional T cells and provided protection against tumor growth in vivo. Vaccination with mimotopes with the highest-affinity TCR-pMHC interactions elicited TAA-specific T cells to the tumor, but did not control tumor growth at any of the peptide concentrations tested. Further analysis of these T cells showed functional defects in response to the TAA. Thus, stimulation of an antitumor response by mimotopes may be optimal with peptides that increase but do not maximize the affinity of the TCR-pMHC interaction.
Severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice reconstituted with human peripheral blood leukocytes (hu-PBL-SCID mice) have inducible human immune function and may be useful as a small animal model for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) research. Hu-PBL-SCID mice infected with human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) contained virus that was recoverable by culture from the peritoneal cavity, spleen, peripheral blood, and lymph nodes for up to 16 weeks after infection; viral sequences were also detected by in situ hybridization and by amplification with the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Mice could be infected with multiple strains of HIV-1, including LAV-1/Bru, IIIB, MN, SF2, and SF13. HIV-1 infection affected the concentration of human immunoglobulin and the number of CD4+ T cells in the mice. These results support the use of the hu-PBL-SCID mouse for studies of the pathogenesis and treatment of AIDS.
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