Effect of Vibrio cholerae neuraminidase on the mitogen response of T lymphocytes. I. Enhancement of macrophage T-lymphocyte cooperation in concanavalin-A-induced lymphocyte activation

Sweet 'n' sour: the impact of differential glycosylation on T cell responses

The fate and functional activity of T lymphocytes depend largely on the precise timing of gene expression and protein production. However, it is clear that post-translational modification of proteins affects their functional properties. Although modifications such as phosphorylation have been intensely studied by immunologists, less attention has been paid to the impact that changes in glycosylation have on protein function. However, there is considerable evidence that glycosylation plays a key role in immune regulation. We will focus here on examples in which differential glycosylation affects the development, survival or reactivity of T cells.

Costimulation of host T lymphocytes by a trypanosomal trans-sialidase: involvement of CD43 signaling

Trans-sialidase is a membrane-bound and shed sialidase from Trypanosoma cruzi, the protozoan parasite responsible for Chagas disease. We investigated the role of soluble trans-sialidase on host CD4+ T cell activation. Trans-sialidase activated naive CD4+ T cells in vivo. Both enzymatically active and inactive recombinant trans-sialidases costimulated CD4+ T cell activation in vitro. Costimulation resulted in increased mitogen-activated protein kinase activation, proliferation, and cytokine synthesis. Furthermore, active and inactive trans-sialidases blocked activation-induced cell death in CD4+ T cells from T. cruzi-infected mice. By flow cytometry, inactive trans-sialidase bound the highly sialylated surface Ag CD43 on host CD4+ T cells. Both costimulatory and antiapoptotic effects of trans-sialidases required CD43 signaling. These results suggest that trans-sialidase family proteins are involved in exacerbated host T lymphocyte responses observed in T. cruzi infection.

Activation and enhanced contact of human T-lymphocytes with autologous red blood cells are required for their stable adherence at 37 degrees

The adherence of human red blood cells (RBC) to autologous T-cells does not occur in the body, and in vitro is elicited at 4 degrees. Autologous E-rosetting at 37 degrees has not previously been described. In this work, lymphocyte-RBC adherence has been studied in mixed leukocyte-RBC cultures and in whole blood from healthy donors. Vital, cytochemical and electron microscopic studies have shown that T-cells may form stable E-rosettes with autologous RBC at 37 degrees. As in the previously reported cold-dependent reversible rosetting, stable rosetting is mediated by the erythrocyte LFA3 and lymphocyte CD2 molecules. Uniquely, this phenomenon requires both T-cell activation and an enhanced contact between the T-cell and RBC membranes. These requirements were met by exposure of cell cultures to: (1) PHAE, the erythroagglutinating component of PHAP, or (2) to either non-erythroagglutinating mitogens, PHAL, Con A, OKT3 or SEA, or to antigens of typhus group rickettsiae or salmonellae, provided that the RBC membrane was desialyted. Cultures derived from individuals seropositive to rickettsiae or vaccinated with salmonellae demonstrated the adherence phenomenon after antigen exposure when neuraminidase was present in the culture medium. The system 2 described here can be used as a diagnostic tool for defining activated T-cells and T-cell clones with the memory to antigens capable of inducing cell-mediated immunity.

Tumor therapy of neoplastic diseases with tumor cells and neuraminidase: experimental studies on chessboard vaccination in transplantation tumors

The therapeutic effect of intradermal (i.d.) injection of tumor cells mixed with VCN on growth of spontaneous metastases in transplantable tumors in mice (3-Lewis lung adenocarcinoma; B16-melanoma) and rats (R-3230 mammary adenocarcinoma) was investigated. Intradermal injection was done in a chessboard-like manner; increasing numbers (10(5), 10(6) and 10(7)) of Mitomycin-treated tumor cells (M-TC) were each mixed with increasing amounts (10, 50 and 100 mU) of Vibrio cholerae Neuraminidase (VCN). These different mixtures were injected i.d. at different sites one day after resection of the primary tumor graft to mice and rats, suffering from minimal residual disease. The therapeutic effect of this so-called chessboard vaccination on minimal residual disease was compared to that of the subcutaneous or i.d. injection of VCN-treated M-TC (10(5), 10(6), 10(7) or 10(8) cells) or of single mixtures of M-TC and VCN. The results show that compared to VCN-treated M-TC or single mixtures of M-TC and VCN, chessboard vaccination is the only procedure that is therapeutically effective on metastasation of Lewis lung adenocarcinoma. The therapeutic effect could be abrogated by heat-inactivation of VCN. Incomplete chessboard vaccinations (10(5), 10(6), 10(7) tumor cells, each mixed with 5 mU VCN only) were likewise ineffective. However, treatment with incomplete chessboard vaccinations in combination with a low dose of cyclophosphamide (which is not immunosuppressive, but partly inhibits tumor growth) had a synergistic therapeutic effect on minimal residual disease of Lewis lung adenocarcinoma. In contrast, growth of metastases of B16-melanoma and R-3230 adenocarcinoma could not significantly be influenced by any of those treatments. The DTH response of tumor bearing animals against i.d. applied tumor cells was neither significantly enhanced by the admixture of enzymatically active VCN nor did the DTH response seem to be predictive for a tumor-therapeutic effect. Thomsen-Friedenreich antigens could serologically be detected on untreated cells of Lewis lung adenocarcinoma, B16-melanoma and R-3230 adenocarcinoma. Exposure of Thomsen-Friedenreich antigens after treatment with VCN was enhanced on cells of all tumors except Lewis lung adenocarcinoma. As chessboard vaccination only proved to be successful in Lewis lung adenocarcinoma, but not in the other tumors, it can be concluded that the exposure of Thomsen-Friedenreich antigen plays no decisive role in tumor therapy with tumor cells and VCN. Chessboard vaccination was tolerated without any side effects. Tumor enhancement was not observed.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)