The mouse cytomegaloviral (MCMV) protein pM27 represents an indispensable factor for viral fitness in vivo selectively, antagonizing signal transducer and activator of transcription 2 (STAT2)-mediated interferon signal transduction. We wished to explore by which molecular mechanism pM27 accomplishes this effect. We demonstrate that pM27 is essential and sufficient to curtail the protein half-life of STAT2 molecules. Pharmacologic inhibition of the proteasome restored STAT2 amounts, leading to poly-ubiquitin-conjugated STAT2 forms. PM27 was found in complexes with an essential host ubiquitin ligase complex adaptor protein, DNA-damage DNA-binding protein (DDB) 1. Truncation mutants of pM27 showed a strict correlation between DDB1 interaction and their ability to degrade STAT2. SiRNA-mediated knock-down of DDB1 restored STAT2 in the presence of pM27 and strongly impaired viral replication in interferon conditioned cells, thus phenocopying the growth attenuation of M27-deficient virus. In a constructive process, pM27 recruits DDB1 to exploit ubiquitin ligase complexes catalyzing the obstruction of the STAT2-dependent antiviral state of cells to permit viral replication.

Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) have been shown to improve antigen loading of dendritic cell vaccines. Here we asked whether fusion of a CPP to a protein improves its immunogenicity when this fusion protein is directly applied as vaccine. We used the cell-penetrating translocation motif (TLM) derived from the hepatitis B virus, because no size limitation of cargos has been observed. Increased immunogenicity was observed when TLM was fused to ovalbumin (TLM-ova). TLM-ova was found to be superior to ova in inducing proliferation and cytotoxicity of ova-specific CD8+ T cells in vitro and in vivo. Using ovalbumin-expressing thymoma cells (EG7-ova), an improved anti-tumor immune response was observed for TLM-ova vaccination versus vaccination with ova. Moreover, TLM-ova vaccination induced a higher titer of anti-ovalbumin IgG2a antibodies compared to ova. These data demonstrate that CPP-protein vaccines can improve cellular as well as humoral immune responses.

SummaryIfosfamide is a DNA-alkylating agent used frequently in chemotherapy of human malignancies. Ifosfamide and its major decomposition products deplete intracellular glutathione (GSH). Glutathione is the major intracellular thiol reductant that protects cells against oxidative injury.

The goal of immune-based tumor therapies is the activation of immune cells reactive against a broad spectrum of tumor-expressed antigens. Vaccines based on chaperone proteins appear promising as these proteins naturally exist as complexes with various protein fragments including those derived from tumor-associated antigens. Multi-chaperone systems are expected to have highest polyvalency as different chaperones can carry distinct sets of antigenic fragments. A free-solution isoelectric focusing (FS-IEF) technique was established to generate chaperone-rich cell lysates (CRCL). Results from murine systems support the contention that CRCL induce superior anti-tumor responses than single chaperone vaccines. We established an in vitro model for human melanoma to evaluate the capacity of CRCL to transfer endogenously expressed tumor antigens to the cross-presentation pathway of dendritic cells (DC) for antigen-specific T cell stimulation. CRCL prepared from human melanoma lines contained the four major chaperone proteins Hsp/Hsc70, Hsp90, Grp94/gp96 and calreticulin. The chaperones within the melanoma cell-derived CRCL were functionally active in that they enhanced cross-presentation of exogenous peptides mixed into the CRCL preparation. Superior activity was observed for Hsp70-rich CRCL obtained from heat-stressed melanoma cells. Despite the presence of active chaperones, melanoma cell-derived CRCL failed to transfer endogenously expressed melanoma-associated antigens to DC for cross-presentation and cytotoxic T cell (CTL) recognition, even after increasing intracellular protein levels of tumor antigen or chaperones. These findings reveal limitations of the CRCL approach regarding cross-presentation of endogenously expressed melanoma-associated antigens. Yet, CRCL may be utilized as vehicles to enhance the delivery of exogenous antigens for DC-mediated cross-presentation and T cell stimulation.