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Biomedical subjects

H G Rammensee

Publications and source records attributed to H G Rammensee.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

Identification of HLA-A2-restricted T-cell epitopes derived from the MUC1 tumor antigen for broadly applicable vaccine therapies.

The tumor-associated antigen MUC1 is overexpressed on various hematological and epithelial malignancies and is therefore a suitable candidate for broadly applicable vaccine therapies. It was demonstrated that major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-unrestricted cytotoxic T cells can recognize epitopes of the MUC1 protein core localized in the tandem repeat domain. There is increasing evidence now that MHC-restricted T cells can also be induced after immunization with the MUC1 protein or segments of the core tandem repeat. Using a computer analysis of the MUC1 amino acid sequence, we identified two novel peptides with a high binding probability to the HLA-A2 molecule. One of the peptides is derived from the tandem repeat region and the other is derived from the leader sequence of the MUC1 protein, suggesting that, in contrast to previous reports, the MUC1-directed immune responses are not limited to the extracellular tandem repeat domain. Cytotoxic T cells (CTL) were generated from several healthy donors by primary in vitro immunization using peptide-pulsed dendritic cells. The addition of a Pan-HLA-DR binding peptide PADRE as a T-helper epitope during the in vitro priming resulted in an increased cytotoxic activity of the MUC1-specific CTL and a higher production of cytokines such as interleukin-12 and interferon-gamma in the cell cultures, demonstrating the importance of CD4 cells for an efficient CTL priming. The peptide induced CTL lysed tumors endogenously expressing MUC1 in an antigen-specific and HLA-A2-restricted fashion, including breast and pancreatic tumor cells as well as renal cell carcinoma cells, showing that these peptides are shared among many tumors. The use of MUC1-derived peptides could provide a broadly applicable approach for the development of dendritic cell-based vaccination therapies.

Antibodies, Monoclonal↗
PubMed1999

Cutting edge: receptor-mediated endocytosis of heat shock proteins by professional antigen-presenting cells.

Immunization with heat shock proteins (HSPs) induces Ag-specific CTL responses. The specificity of the immune response is based on peptides associated with HSPs. To investigate how exogenous HSP/peptide complexes gain access to the MHC class I-restricted Ag presentation pathway, we incubated the monocytic cell line P388D1 and the dendritic cell line D2SC/1 with gold-labeled HSPs gp96 and HSC70. We show that HSPs bind specifically to the surface of these APCs and are internalized spontaneously by receptor-mediated endocytosis, demonstrating the existence of specific receptors for HSPs on these cells. In addition, we observe colocalization of internalized HSPs and surface MHC class I molecules in early and late endosomal structures. These findings provide possible explanations for the immunogenicity of HSP/peptide complexes and for the transfer of HSP-associated peptides onto MHC class I molecules.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Alloreactivity as a source of high avidity peptide-specific human CTL.

PBL from HLA-A2- or HLA-A3- donors were stimulated with synthetic peptide libraries fitting HLA-A2 or HLA-A3 motifs and presented on HLA-A2- or HLA-A3-expressing TAP- cells. Peptide library-specific allorestricted CTL were found to constitute up to half the alloreactive CTL response and occurred at twofold lower frequency than autologous peptide library-specific CTL. This indicates that positive selection by one particular MHC class I molecule is not absolutely essential for the generation of CTL restricted to the same molecule. However, positive selection increases their frequency. The CTL obtained differed greatly both with respect to peptide dependency and peptide specificity. Determination of the peptide avidity for one representative CTL clone, 10F4, proved that the method described here allows the stimulation of high avidity cytotoxic T cells. This approach involving in vitro stimulation of T cells restricted toward a MHC molecule that was not present during their negative selection might therefore offer the possibility of isolating CTL against self and foreign peptides with varying avidities. Such T cells might indeed be useful for tumor immunotherapy.

Cells, Cultured↗
PubMed1999

TGF-beta-independent induction of immunogenicity by decorin gene transfer in human malignant glioma cells.

Ectopic expression of the proteoglycan, decorin, abrogates the growth of experimental C6 gliomas in the rat. Since gliomas release large amounts of transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) and since decorin is a TGF-beta antagonist, decorin gene transfer-mediated abrogation of glioma growth in vivo may involve enhanced immunogenicity of the tumor cells. Here, we report that human glioma cells stimulate alloreactive immune responses when engineered to express decorin whereas parental glioma cells are non-immunogenic in vitro. The alloreactive immune response is mediated by CD8+ and CD4+ T cells as well as by NK cells. The immunosuppression exerted by parental or mock-transfected glioma cells is mediated by soluble factors and can in part be mimicked by exogenous TGF-beta. However, neutralizing anti-TGF-beta antibodies do not reverse glioma-mediated immunosuppression, suggesting that decorin abrogates glioma-induced immune cell inhibition by interfering with the activity of other, so far unidentified glioma-secreted mediators. We conclude that enhanced immunogenicity may mediate the antineoplastic effects of decorin gene therapy for malignant glioma but that factors other than TGF-beta may be responsible for glioma-induced immunosuppression.

Adenoviridae↗
PubMed1999

Molecular cloning of a macrophage-derived, interferon-inducible secreted immunoglobulin-binding protein.

We describe the molecular cloning of a 1803-bp cDNA coding for a product termed interferon-induced immunoglobulin-binding protein (IIBP) from a library of IFN-alpha-induced primary bone marrow macrophages. The open reading frame encodes a protein of 26-kDa containing two immunoglobulin-like and one Fc receptor-like domain. Due to the constitutive release of low amounts of IFN-beta, the IIBP mRNA is already present in macrophage-colony-stimulating factor-cultured macrophages. Its expression could be blocked in the presence of either anti-IFN-beta or interleukin-4, which down-regulates the endogenous IFN-beta production. Upon addition of rIFN-alpha4 a 3-5-fold superinduction of IIBP mRNA was observed. Rat monoclonal antibodies detected a protein of the predicted size exclusively in cell culture supernatants of primary bone marrow macrophages and a B-cell line. In immunoprecipitation experiments an unknown 30-kDa protein co-precipitated. The secreted IIBP showed considerable binding to nonspecific rat IgG2a and could be precipitated using mouse IgG2a, IgG2b and IgG3 antibodies of irrelevant specificities, indicating that this gene product is a novel secreted immunoglobulin-binding protein with a new IgG isotype binding pattern that differs to that of known Fc receptors.

Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing↗
PubMed1999

The role of peptide presentation in the physiological function of HLA-G.

The HLA-G gene gives rise to six differently spliced mRNAs. The membrane bound HLA-G1 molecule containing all three extracellular domains presents peptides that follow motif requirements similar to those of classical HLA class I molecules. This isoform is also capable of inhibiting Natural Killer (NK) cells, but is only efficiently transported to the cell surface when peptides are provided in the endoplasmic reticulum. In the absence of sufficient peptide supply to the ER a small molecule of 18-kDa is transported to the cell surface in HLA-G transfectants of LCL721.221 cells. HLA-G transfectants with impaired ER peptide supply are nevertheless protected from NK lysis.

Biological Transport↗
PubMed1999

Peptide presentation and NK inhibition by HLA-G.

The expression of the nonclassical MHC class Ib molecule HLA-G is nearly exclusively restricted to the feto-maternal interface during pregnancy. There it probably serves the same physiological functions already known for classical MHC class I molecules; these include peptide presentation, natural killer cell (NK) inhibition and probably also T cell restriction. In this study a comparison between HLA-G and HLA-A2 as far as the amount and complexity of bound peptides is concerned revealed no significant differences. The peptide motif of HLA-G, as determined by analysis of naturally eluted peptides allows the construction of a peptide library that is efficient in binding to HLA-G and thereby confirms the rules of peptide binding to this nonclassical MHC class I molecule. In addition, we demonstrate that the inhibition of NK cells by HLA-G varies remarkably among the NK repertoires of different donors. The function of HLA-G as a survival factor in the development of the fetus during pregnancy is discussed in detail.

Antigen Presentation↗
PubMed1999

Stress proteins and immunity mediated by cytotoxic T lymphocytes.

Chaperone molecules, including members of the heat shock protein family, are able to stimulate alphabeta and gammadelta T cells as well as natural killer cells. For alphabeta T cells, specificity is induced by chaperone-assisted peptides; this has lead to detailed investigations of peptides that bind to these chaperones and their possible role in antigen presentation.

Heat-Shock Proteins↗
PubMed1998

Cleavage motifs of the yeast 20S proteasome beta subunits deduced from digests of enolase 1.

The 436-amino acid protein enolase 1 from yeast was degraded in vitro by purified wild-type and mutant yeast 20S proteasome particles. Analysis of the cleavage products at different times revealed a processive degradation mechanism and a length distribution of fragments ranging from 3 to 25 amino acids with an average length of 7 to 8 amino acids. Surprisingly, the average fragment length was very similar between wild-type and mutant 20S proteasomes with reduced numbers of active sites. This implies that the fragment length is not influenced by the distance between the active sites, as previously postulated. A detailed analysis of the cleavages also allowed the identification of certain amino acid characteristics in positions flanking the cleavage site that guide the selection of the P1 residues by the three active beta subunits. Because yeast and mammalian proteasomes are highly homologous, similar cleavage motifs might be used by mammalian proteasomes. Therefore, our data provide a basis for predicting proteasomal degradation products from which peptides are sampled by major histocompatibility complex class I molecules for presentation to cytotoxic T cells.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1998

Contribution of proteasomal beta-subunits to the cleavage of peptide substrates analyzed with yeast mutants.

Proteasomes generate peptides that can be presented by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules in vertebrate cells. Using yeast 20 S proteasomes carrying different inactivated beta-subunits, we investigated the specificities and contributions of the different beta-subunits to the degradation of polypeptide substrates containing MHC class I ligands and addressed the question of additional proteolytically active sites apart from the active beta-subunits. We found a clear correlation between the contribution of the different subunits to the cleavage of fluorogenic and long peptide substrates, with beta5/Pre2 cleaving after hydrophobic, beta2/Pup1 after basic, and beta1/Pre3 after acidic residues, but with the exception that beta2/Pup1 and beta1/Pre3 can also cleave after some hydrophobic residues. All proteolytic activities including the "branched chain amino acid-preferring" component are associated with beta5/Pre2, beta1/Pre3, or beta2/Pup1, arguing against additional proteolytic sites. Because of the high homology between yeast and mammalian 20 S proteasomes in sequence and subunit topology and the conservation of cleavage specificity between mammalian and yeast proteasomes, our results can be expected to also describe most of the proteolytic activity of mammalian 20 S proteasomes leading to the generation of MHC class I ligands.

Acetylcysteine↗
PubMed1998

Protective immunity does not correlate with the hierarchy of virus-specific cytotoxic T cell responses to naturally processed peptides.

Infection of C57BL/6 mice with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) stimulates major histocompatibility complex class I-restricted cytotoxic T cells (CTLs), which normally resolve the infection. Three peptide epitopes derived from LCMV have been shown to bind the mouse class I molecule H-2 Db and to stimulate CTL responses in LCMV-infected mice. This report describes the identity and abundance of each CTL epitope after their elution from LCMV-infected cells. Based on this information, peptide abundance was found to correlate with the magnitude of each CTL response generated after infection with LCMV. Subsequent experiments, performed to determine the antiviral capacity of each CTL specificity, indicate that the quantitative hierarchy of CTL activity does not correlate with the ability to protect against LCMV infection. This report, therefore, indicates that immunodominant epitopes should be defined, not only by the strength of the CTL response that they stimulate, but also by the ability of the CTLs to protect against infection.

Adoptive Transfer↗
PubMed1998

Identification of HLA-A2-restricted epitopes of the tumor-associated antigen MUC2 recognized by human cytotoxic T cells.

Previous studies have shown that self-antigens overexpressed in malignant tissue can provide a basis for a tumor-specific immune response. The mucin MUC2 is strongly overexpressed in all mucinous tumors of colon, breast, ovary and pancreas. In the corresponding normal tissue it is either not expressed (breast, ovary, pancreas) or it is expressed at considerably lower levels than in the mucinous tumors (colon). We therefore investigated whether the MUC2 molecule comprises HLA-A2-binding epitopes recognized by human cytotoxic T cells. Four MUC2 peptides with high affinity and stable binding to HLA-A2 were identified. Those peptides and additionally 3 peptides with moderate binding to HLA-A2 were loaded onto dendritic cells, which were used for stimulation of autologous T cells from healthy donors. Two MUC2 peptides, which belonged to the group of stable binders, induced specific cytotoxic T-cell lines. Target cells loaded with these peptides were strongly lysed in a concentration-dependent and HLA-A2-restricted manner. Our data show that the tumor-associated mucin MUC2 has potential as a target antigen for cytotoxic T cells in patients with mucinous carcinomas.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1998

Her-2/neu-derived peptides are tumor-associated antigens expressed by human renal cell and colon carcinoma lines and are recognized by in vitro induced specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes.

The Her-2/neu oncogene encodes a Mr 185,000 transmembrane protein with homology to the epidermal growth factor receptor. It is overexpressed in 30-40% of breast and ovarian cancers, and this overexpression was shown to correlate with aggressiveness of malignancy and poor prognosis. Using tumor-associated lymphocytes isolated from patients with ovarian or breast cancer, several HLA-A2-restricted, Her-2/neu-derived peptides were identified. Further studies revealed that these tumor-associated CTLs can also lyse other tumors, including non-small cell lung and pancreatic cancer cells, suggesting that Her-2/neu epitopes are shared between several distinct types of epithelial tumors. To analyze whether Her-2/neu epitopes are tumor-associated antigens for renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and colon carcinoma, we induced Her-2/neu peptide-specific CTL responses by primary in vitro immunization and used these CTLs to determine the presentation of Her-2/neu epitopes on human tumor lines. Autologous dendritic cells (DCs) generated from peripheral blood monocytes were pulsed with Her-2/neu-derived peptides E75 and GP2 and used as antigen-presenting cells for CTL priming. High CTL activity toward peptide-pulsed targets was obtained after two weekly restimulations. CTLs induced with DCs generated in the presence of TNF-alpha elicited a higher cytotoxic activity when they were stimulated with the cognate peptide than did CTLs induced with DCs grown in granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor and interleukin 4 alone. The cytotoxicity of induced CTLs was antigen specific and HLA-A2 restricted. Furthermore, these CTLs lysed, in a MHC- and antigen-restricted fashion, not only breast cancer cells but also colon carcinoma and RCC cell lines expressing Her-2/neu. The cytotoxic activity against tumor cells was blocked by cold HLA-A2-positive targets pulsed with the cognate peptide in cold target inhibition assay and by anti-HLA-A2 monoclonal Ab. These results suggest that epitopes derived from Her-2/neu protein might be attractive candidates for broadly applicable vaccines and may prove useful for adoptive immunotherapies designed for colon carcinoma or RCC.

Antigens, Neoplasm↗
PubMed1998

MHC class II-associated invariant chain peptide replacement by T cell epitopes: engineered invariant chain as a vehicle for directed and enhanced MHC class II antigen processing and presentation.

Proteolysis of the invariant chain (li) leads to the generation of abundant MHC class II-associated invariant chain peptides (CLIP), which bind in the MHC class II binding groove via supermotifs in a manner similar to that of antigenic peptides. We have engineered an li vector with the capacity to express any antigenic peptide of interest instead of CLIP, for T cell stimulation. When peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were pulsed with li hybrids encoding T cell epitopes of tetanus toxin or acetylcholine receptor, stimulation of T cells was dramatically enhanced compared to stimulation after priming with either the native or recombinant proteins. Site-specific insertion of antigenic sequences into the CLIP region promoted enhanced antigenicity of li hybrids which were shown to be processed intracellularly in a chloroquine-sensitive compartment. Naturally processed T helper epitopes were visualized directly on the surface of PBMC and identified as analogs of CLIP associated with MHC class II molecules. This novel li vector provides a flexible and efficient system for the delivery of defined peptide epitopes to T cells which might be useful in the development of specific vaccines and in the study of intracellular processing.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1998

Allo- and self-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocytes against a peptide library: evidence for a functionally diverse allorestricted T cell repertoire.

BALB/c-derived spleen cells were depleted of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) recognizing allogeneic (H2b) and TAP-negative cells followed by stimulation with the same cells loaded with a synthetic library binding to H2-Kb. The resulting CTL lines were found to differ widely in peptide specificity and to exhibit an avidity towards the library as that demonstrated for syngeneic CTL. These results demonstrate that positive selection in the context of a certain MHC molecule does not seem to be required for generating high-avidity TCR that are restricted by the same molecule. However, positive selection increases the frequency of such CTL. By raising T cell lines from a repertoire which did not undergo negative selection by the restriction element in question, it becomes possible to produce effective self-peptide/ MHC as well as nonself-peptide/MHC-specific CTL as tools for adoptive tumor immunotherapy.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1998

The making of the dominant MHC class I ligand SYFPEITHI.

The proteasome contributes to the generation of most of the peptide ligands of MHC class I molecules. To compare the identity of the peptides generated by the proteasome with those finally presented by MHC class I molecules, we generated a monoclonal antibody recognizing the C-terminal part of the dominant H2-Kd ligand SYFPEITHI derived from the JAK1 tyrosine kinase. Immunoprecipitations of lysates from H2-Kd-expressing or non-expressing cells revealed that only in the presence of H2-Kd SYFPEITHI could be isolated. No longer potential precursor peptide containing SYFPEITHI could be detected. Surprisingly, a peptide lacking the first two amino acids, FPEITHI, was isolated independently of the presence of H2-Kd molecules. The detection of only SYFPEITHI and FPEITHI in cell lysates corresponded with the strong generation of these two peptides in in vitro digests of elongated SYFPEITHI-containing peptides with purified 20S proteasomes. Our results indicate that MHC ligands can be generated directly by the proteasome in vivo and that at least for SYFPEITHI the expression of the corresponding MHC molecule is critical for protection of the ligand in vivo.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1998

A protective cytotoxic T cell response to a subdominant epitope is influenced by the stability of the MHC class I/peptide complex and the overall spectrum of viral peptides generated within infected cells.

This study identifies instability of MHC class I/peptide complexes and intermolecular competition for MHC class I presentation as factors responsible for the subdominance of cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes. This evidence is based on the characterization of a new CTL epitope derived from the glycoprotein (GP) of lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV). This epitope, peptide GP117-125 (GP117) is presented to T cells by the mouse MHC class I molecule, H-2Db. In short-term experiments induction of GP117-specific CTL by vaccination rendered C57BL/6 mice only partially resistant to infection with wild-type LCMV (LCMV-WE) but completely resistant to challenge with a previously described LCMV variant. The variant virus, LCMV-8.7B23, bears point mutations within both known LCMV-GP, H-2 Db-restricted epitopes GP33-41 (GP33) and GP276-286 (GP276) resulting in a valine to leucine change at position 35 in peptide GP33 (V35L) and an asparagine to serine change at position 280 in peptide GP276 (N280S). Although variant peptide GP33/V35L stimulates a weak CTL response, GP276/N280S does not. Elution of peptide GP117 from both LCMV-WE- and LCMV-8.7B23-infected cells revealed that the difference in the capacity of GP117-specific CTL to protect against LCMV-WE and the virus variant LCMV-8.7B23 was due to differences in the level of GP117 presentation on the surface of both types of cells. Thus, it appears that the protective capacity of CTL specific for the subdominant epitope GP117 is influenced by the extent of presentation of other immunodominant peptide epitopes present within infected cells.

Animals↗