Summary

Human Papillomavirüs Roman T hücre epitopları Karakterizasyonu için interferon-γ Enzim bağlı immünospot Assay Kullanımı

Published: March 08, 2012
doi:

Summary

Characterizing T-cell epitopes of pathogens that cause localized infections such as human papillomavirus is a challenge because of limited number of T cells in circulation. A method is described in which rare T cells were isolated and were characterized starting with a very small number of cells.

Abstract

A protocol has been developed to overcome the difficulties of isolating and characterizing rare T cells specific for pathogens, such as human papillomavirus (HPV), that cause localized infections. The steps involved are identifying region(s) of HPV proteins that contain T-cell epitope(s) from a subject, selecting for the peptide-specific T cells based on interferon-γ (IFN-γ) secretion, and growing and characterizing the T-cell clones (Fig. 1). Subject 1 was a patient who was recently diagnosed with a high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion by biopsy and underwent loop electrical excision procedure for treatment on the day the T cells were collected1. A region within the human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV 16) E6 and E7 proteins which contained a T-cell epitope was identified using an IFN- g enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assay performed with overlapping synthetic peptides (Fig. 2). The data from this assay were used not only to identify a region containing a T-cell epitope, but also to estimate the number of epitope specific T cells and to isolate them on the basis of IFN- γ secretion using commercially available magnetic beads (CD8 T-cell isolation kit, Miltenyi Biotec, Auburn CA). The selected IFN-γ secreting T cells were diluted and grown singly in the presence of an irradiated feeder cell mixture in order to support the growth of a single T-cell per well. These T-cell clones were screened using an IFN- γ ELISPOT assay in the presence of peptides covering the identified region and autologous Epstein-Barr virus transformed B-lymphoblastoid cells (LCLs, obtained how described by Walls and Crawford)2 in order to minimize the number of T-cell clone cells needed. Instead of using 1 x 105 cells per well typically used in ELISPOT assays1,3, 1,000 T-cell clone cells in the presence of 1 x 105 autologous LCLs were used, dramatically reducing the number of T-cell clone cells needed. The autologous LCLs served not only to present peptide antigens to the T-cell clone cells, but also to keep a high cell density in the wells allowing the epitope-specific T-cell clone cells to secrete IFN-γ. This assures successful performance of IFN-γ ELISPOT assay. Similarly, IFN- γ ELISPOT assays were utilized to characterize the minimal and optimal amino acid sequence of the CD8 T-cell epitope (HPV 16 E6 52-61 FAFRDLCIVY) and its HLA class I restriction element (B58). The IFN- γ ELISPOT assay was also performed using autologous LCLs infected with vaccinia virus expressing HPV 16 E6 or E7 protein. The result demonstrated that the E6 T-cell epitope was endogenously processed. The cross-recognition of homologous T-cell epitope of other high-risk HPV types was shown. This method can also be used to describe CD4 T-cell epitopes4.

Protocol

By performing an IFN-γ ELISPOT assay with a CD8 T cell line established from Subject 1, HPV 16 E6 46-70 region was determined to contain a T-cell epitope1 (Fig. 2), and the epitope-specific T cells were selected on the basis of IFN-γ secretion prior to starting this protocol (Fig. 1). 1. Limiting Dilution of Epitope-Specific T Cells Prepare the feeder cell mixture by combining irradiated (4,000 rad) allogeneic peripheral bloo…

Discussion

Traditionally, immunologists attempted to characterize novel T-cell epitopes by stimulating the T-cells of interest in vitro, and performing a limiting dilution experiment to isolate the epitope-specific T-cell clones. Then the T-cell clones were characterized using a chromium release assay 8,9. However, many attempts were unsuccessful because the frequencies of the T-cells may have been too low to be isolated or because not enough T-cell clone cells were available to complete the characterization. Th…

Disclosures

The authors have nothing to disclose.

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by an American Cancer Society Scholars Award (RSG-06-180-01-MBC) and NIH grants (R01 CA143130 and UL1RR029884).

Materials

Name of reagent Company Catalog Number Comments
CD8 T cell isolation kit Miltenyi 130-094-156
Phytohemagglutinin Remel R-30852801 2mg/vial
Yssel’s medium Gemini Bio-Products 400-102 1% pooled human serum
96-well round bottom plate BD Falcon 08-772-17
Recombinant human IL-2 R&D 202-IL-050 50μg
24-well plate Corning Costar 07-200-84
Phosphate-buffered saline Cellgro MT-21-031-CV
Primary anti-IFN-γ monoclonal antibody (D1K) Mabtech 3420-3-1000
Biotin-conjugated anti-IFN-γ monoclonal antibody (7B-6) Mabtech 3420-6-1000
Multiscreen HA ELISPOT plate Millipore MAHA S45 10
Dimethyl Sulphoxide Sigma D2650 100 ml bottle
Pooled Serum, human Atlanta Biologicals S40510H Heat inactivate
RPMI 1640 Cellgro MT-10-040-CV
Tween-20 Sigma P2287-100ml
Vectastain Elite ABC Kit Vector Labs NC9313719
Stable diaminobenzidine Open Biosystems MBI 1241
AID EliSpot Reader Classic Autoimmun Diagnostika GmbH ELR06

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Cite This Article
Wang, X., Greenfield, W. W., Coleman, H. N., James, L. E., Nakagawa, M. Use of Interferon-γ Enzyme-linked Immunospot Assay to Characterize Novel T-cell Epitopes of Human Papillomavirus. J. Vis. Exp. (61), e3657, doi:10.3791/3657 (2012).

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