1
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Le HN, de Freitas MV, Antunes DA. Strengths and limitations of web servers for the modeling of TCRpMHC complexes. Comput Struct Biotechnol J 2024; 23:2938-2948. [PMID: 39104710 PMCID: PMC11298609 DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2024.06.028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2024] [Revised: 06/22/2024] [Accepted: 06/23/2024] [Indexed: 08/07/2024] Open
Abstract
Cellular immunity relies on the ability of a T-cell receptor (TCR) to recognize a peptide (p) presented by a class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC) receptor on the surface of a cell. The TCR-peptide-MHC (TCRpMHC) interaction is a crucial step in activating T-cells, and the structural characteristics of these molecules play a significant role in determining the specificity and affinity of this interaction. Hence, obtaining 3D structures of TCRpMHC complexes offers valuable insights into various aspects of cellular immunity and can facilitate the development of T-cell-based immunotherapies. Here, we aimed to compare three popular web servers for modeling the structures of TCRpMHC complexes, namely ImmuneScape (IS), TCRpMHCmodels, and TCRmodel2, to examine their strengths and limitations. Each method employs a different modeling strategy, including docking, homology modeling, and deep learning. The accuracy of each method was evaluated by reproducing the 3D structures of a dataset of 87 TCRpMHC complexes with experimentally determined crystal structures available on the Protein Data Bank (PDB). All selected structures were limited to human MHC alleles, presenting a diverse set of peptide ligands. A detailed analysis of produced models was conducted using multiple metrics, including Root Mean Square Deviation (RMSD) and standardized assessments from CAPRI and DockQ. Special attention was given to the complementarity-determining region (CDR) loops of the TCRs and to the peptide ligands, which define most of the unique features and specificity of a given TCRpMHC interaction. Our study provides an optimistic view of the current state-of-the-art for TCRpMHC modeling but highlights some remaining challenges that must be addressed in order to support the future application of these tools for TCR engineering and computer-aided design of TCR-based immunotherapies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hoa Nhu Le
- University of Houston, Departments of Biology and Biochemistry, Houston, 77204, TX, USA
| | | | - Dinler Amaral Antunes
- University of Houston, Departments of Biology and Biochemistry, Houston, 77204, TX, USA
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2
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Ehrlich R, Glynn E, Singh M, Ghersi D. Computational Methods for Predicting Key Interactions in T Cell-Mediated Adaptive Immunity. Annu Rev Biomed Data Sci 2024; 7:295-316. [PMID: 38748864 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-biodatasci-102423-122741] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/25/2024]
Abstract
The adaptive immune system recognizes pathogen- and cancer-specific features and is endowed with memory, enabling it to respond quickly and efficiently to repeated encounters with the same antigens. T cells play a central role in the adaptive immune system by directly targeting intracellular pathogens and helping to activate B cells to secrete antibodies. Several fundamental protein interactions-including those between major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins and antigen-derived peptides as well as between T cell receptors and peptide-MHC complexes-underlie the ability of T cells to recognize antigens with great precision. Computational approaches to predict these interactions are increasingly being used for medically relevant applications, including vaccine design and prediction of patient response to cancer immunotherapies. We provide computational researchers with an accessible introduction to the adaptive immune system, review computational approaches to predict the key protein interactions underlying T cell-mediated adaptive immunity, and highlight remaining challenges.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ryan Ehrlich
- School of Interdisciplinary Informatics, University of Nebraska, Omaha, Nebraska, USA;
| | - Eric Glynn
- Lewis-Sigler Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
| | - Mona Singh
- Department of Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA;
- Lewis-Sigler Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
| | - Dario Ghersi
- School of Interdisciplinary Informatics, University of Nebraska, Omaha, Nebraska, USA;
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3
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Tarabini RF, Fioravanti Vieira G, Rigo MM, de Souza APD. Mutations in glioblastoma proteins do not disrupt epitope presentation and recognition, maintaining a specific CD8 T cell immune response potential. Sci Rep 2024; 14:16721. [PMID: 39030304 PMCID: PMC11271619 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-67099-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2024] [Accepted: 07/08/2024] [Indexed: 07/21/2024] Open
Abstract
Antigen-specific cytotoxic CD8 T cells are extremely effective in controlling tumor growth and have been the focus of immunotherapy approaches. We leverage in silico tools to investigate whether the occurrence of mutations in proteins previously described as immunogenic and highly expressed by glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), such as Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR), Isocitrate Dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1), Phosphatase and Tensin homolog (PTEN) and Tumor Protein 53 (TP53), may be contributing to the differential presentation of immunogenic epitopes. We recovered Class I MHC binding information from wild-type and mutated proteins using the Immune Epitope Database (IEDB). After that, we built peptide-MHC (pMHC-I) models in HLA-arena, followed by hierarchical clustering analysis based on electrostatic surface features from each complex. We identified point mutations that are determinants for the presentation of a set of peptides from TP53 protein. We point to structural features in the pMHC-I complexes of wild-type and mutated peptides, which may play a role in the recognition of CD8 T cells. To further explore these features, we performed 100 ns molecular dynamics simulations for the peptide pairs (wt/mut) selected. In pursuit of novel therapeutic targets for GBM treatment, we selected peptides where our predictive results indicated that mutations would not disrupt epitope presentation, thereby maintaining a specific CD8 T cell immune response. These peptides hold potential for future GBM interventions, including peptide-based or mRNA vaccine development applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renata Fioravanti Tarabini
- Laboratory of Clinical and Experimental Immunology, Infant Center, School of Health Science, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Porto Alegre, Brazil
| | - Gustavo Fioravanti Vieira
- Post-Graduation Program in Genetics and Molecular Biology, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
- Post-Graduation Program in Health and Human Development, Universidade La Salle, Canoas, Brazil
| | - Maurício Menegatti Rigo
- Kavraki Lab, Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA.
- Center for Discovery and Innovation, Hackensack Meridian Health, Nutley, NJ, USA.
| | - Ana Paula Duarte de Souza
- Laboratory of Clinical and Experimental Immunology, Infant Center, School of Health Science, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Porto Alegre, Brazil.
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4
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Hong N, Jiang D, Wang Z, Sun H, Luo H, Bao L, Song M, Kang Y, Hou T. TransfIGN: A Structure-Based Deep Learning Method for Modeling the Interaction between HLA-A*02:01 and Antigen Peptides. J Chem Inf Model 2024; 64:5016-5027. [PMID: 38920330 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.4c00678] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/27/2024]
Abstract
The intricate interaction between major histocompatibility complexes (MHCs) and antigen peptides with diverse amino acid sequences plays a pivotal role in immune responses and T cell activity. In recent years, deep learning (DL)-based models have emerged as promising tools for accelerating antigen peptide screening. However, most of these models solely rely on one-dimensional amino acid sequences, overlooking crucial information required for the three-dimensional (3-D) space binding process. In this study, we propose TransfIGN, a structure-based DL model that is inspired by our previously developed framework, Interaction Graph Network (IGN), and incorporates sequence information from transformers to predict the interactions between HLA-A*02:01 and antigen peptides. Our model, trained on a comprehensive data set containing 61,816 sequences with 9051 binding affinity labels and 56,848 eluted ligand labels, achieves an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.893 on the binary data set, better than state-of-the-art sequence-based models trained on larger data sets such as NetMHCpan4.1, ANN, and TransPHLA. Furthermore, when evaluated on the IEDB weekly benchmark data sets, our predictions (AUC = 0.816) are better than those of the recommended methods like the IEDB consensus (AUC = 0.795). Notably, the interaction weight matrices generated by our method highlight the strong interactions at specific positions within peptides, emphasizing the model's ability to provide physical interpretability. This capability to unveil binding mechanisms through intricate structural features holds promise for new immunotherapeutic avenues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nanqi Hong
- College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310027, China
- Innovation Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine of Zhejiang University, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, China
| | - Dejun Jiang
- Innovation Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine of Zhejiang University, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, China
| | - Zhe Wang
- Innovation Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine of Zhejiang University, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, China
| | - Huiyong Sun
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210009, China
| | - Hao Luo
- Innovation Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine of Zhejiang University, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, China
| | - Lingjie Bao
- Innovation Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine of Zhejiang University, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, China
| | - Mingli Song
- College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310027, China
| | - Yu Kang
- Innovation Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine of Zhejiang University, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, China
| | - Tingjun Hou
- Innovation Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine of Zhejiang University, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, China
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5
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Linsley PS, Nakayama M, Balmas E, Chen J, Barahmand-Pour-Whitman F, Bansal S, Bottorff T, Serti E, Speake C, Pugliese A, Cerosaletti K. Germline-like TCR-α chains shared between autoreactive T cells in blood and pancreas. Nat Commun 2024; 15:4971. [PMID: 38871688 PMCID: PMC11176301 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48833-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2023] [Accepted: 05/13/2024] [Indexed: 06/15/2024] Open
Abstract
Human type 1 diabetes (T1D) is caused by autoimmune attack on the insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells by islet antigen-reactive T cells. How human islet antigen-reactive (IAR) CD4+ memory T cells from peripheral blood affect T1D progression in the pancreas is poorly understood. Here, we aim to determine if IAR T cells in blood could be detected in pancreas. We identify paired αβ (TRA/TRB) T cell receptors (TCRs) in IAR T cells from the blood of healthy, at-risk, new-onset, and established T1D donors, and measured sequence overlap with TCRs in pancreata from healthy, at risk and T1D organ donors. We report extensive TRA junction sharing between IAR T cells and pancreas-infiltrating T cells (PIT), with perfect-match or single-mismatch TRA junction amino acid sequences comprising ~29% total unique IAR TRA junctions (942/3,264). PIT-matched TRA junctions were largely public and enriched for TRAV41 usage, showing significant nucleotide sequence convergence, increased use of germline-encoded versus non-templated residues in epitope engagement, and a potential for cross-reactivity. Our findings thus link T cells with distinctive germline-like TRA chains in the peripheral blood with T cells in the pancreas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter S Linsley
- Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason, Seattle, WA, USA.
| | - Maki Nakayama
- Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes, Department of Immunology and Microbiology, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, USA
| | - Elisa Balmas
- Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Janice Chen
- Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason, Seattle, WA, USA
| | | | - Shubham Bansal
- Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Ty Bottorff
- Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason, Seattle, WA, USA
| | | | - Cate Speake
- Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Alberto Pugliese
- Department of Diabetes Immunology & The Wanek Family Project for Type 1 Diabetes, Arthur Riggs Diabetes & Metabolism Research Institute, City of Hope, Duarte, CA, USA
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6
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Shirizadeh A, Borzouei S, Razavi Z, Taherkhani A, Faradmal J, Solgi G. Determination of HLA class II risk alleles and prediction of self/non-self-epitopes contributing Hashimoto's thyroiditis in a group of Iranian patients. Immunogenetics 2024; 76:175-187. [PMID: 38607388 DOI: 10.1007/s00251-024-01339-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2024] [Accepted: 03/30/2024] [Indexed: 04/13/2024]
Abstract
One of the probable hypotheses for the onset of autoimmunity is molecular mimicry. This study aimed to determine the HLA-II risk alleles for developing Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) in order to analyze the molecular homology between candidate pathogen-derived epitopes and potentially self-antigens (thyroid peroxidase, TPO) based on the presence of HLA risk alleles. HLA-DRB1/-DQB1 genotyping was performed in 100 HT patients and 330 ethnically matched healthy controls to determine the predisposing/protective alleles for HT disease. Then, in silico analysis was conducted to examine the sequence homology between epitopes derived from autoantigens and four potentially relevant pathogens and their binding capacities to HLA risk alleles based on peptide docking analysis. We identified HLA-DRB1*03:01, *04:02, *04:05, and *11:04 as predisposing alleles and DRB1*13:01 as a potentially predictive allele for HT disease. Also, DRB1*11:04 ~ DQB1*03:01 (Pc = 0.002; OR, 3.97) and DRB1*03:01 ~ DQB1*02:01 (Pc = 0.004; OR, 2.24) haplotypes conferred a predisposing role for HT. Based on logistic regression analysis, carrying risk alleles increased the risk of HT development 4.5 times in our population (P = 7.09E-10). Also, ROC curve analysis revealed a high predictive power of those risk alleles for discrimination of the susceptible from healthy individuals (AUC, 0.70; P = 6.6E-10). Analysis of peptide sequence homology between epitopes of TPO and epitopes derived from four candidate microorganisms revealed a homology between envelop glycoprotein D of herpes virus and sequence 151-199 of TPO with remarkable binding capacity to HLA-DRB1*03:01 allele. Our findings indicate the increased risk of developing HT in those individuals carrying HLA risk alleles which can also be related to herpes virus infection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ata Shirizadeh
- Immunology Department, Medical School, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Fahmideh Blvd, P.O. Box: 6517838736, Opposite to Lona ParkHamadan, Iran
| | - Shiva Borzouei
- Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran
| | - Zahra Razavi
- Pediatrics Department, Medical School, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran
| | - Amir Taherkhani
- Research Center for Molecular Medicine, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran
| | - Javad Faradmal
- Biostatistics Department, Health School, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran
| | - Ghasem Solgi
- Immunology Department, Medical School, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Fahmideh Blvd, P.O. Box: 6517838736, Opposite to Lona ParkHamadan, Iran.
- Cancer Research Center, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran.
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7
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Fasoulis R, Rigo MM, Lizée G, Antunes DA, Kavraki LE. APE-Gen2.0: Expanding Rapid Class I Peptide-Major Histocompatibility Complex Modeling to Post-Translational Modifications and Noncanonical Peptide Geometries. J Chem Inf Model 2024; 64:1730-1750. [PMID: 38415656 PMCID: PMC10936522 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.3c01667] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2023] [Revised: 02/14/2024] [Accepted: 02/15/2024] [Indexed: 02/29/2024]
Abstract
The recognition of peptides bound to class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC-I) receptors by T-cell receptors (TCRs) is a determinant of triggering the adaptive immune response. While the exact molecular features that drive the TCR recognition are still unknown, studies have suggested that the geometry of the joint peptide-MHC (pMHC) structure plays an important role. As such, there is a definite need for methods and tools that accurately predict the structure of the peptide bound to the MHC-I receptor. In the past few years, many pMHC structural modeling tools have emerged that provide high-quality modeled structures in the general case. However, there are numerous instances of non-canonical cases in the immunopeptidome that the majority of pMHC modeling tools do not attend to, most notably, peptides that exhibit non-standard amino acids and post-translational modifications (PTMs) or peptides that assume non-canonical geometries in the MHC binding cleft. Such chemical and structural properties have been shown to be present in neoantigens; therefore, accurate structural modeling of these instances can be vital for cancer immunotherapy. To this end, we have developed APE-Gen2.0, a tool that improves upon its predecessor and other pMHC modeling tools, both in terms of modeling accuracy and the available modeling range of non-canonical peptide cases. Some of the improvements include (i) the ability to model peptides that have different types of PTMs such as phosphorylation, nitration, and citrullination; (ii) a new and improved anchor identification routine in order to identify and model peptides that exhibit a non-canonical anchor conformation; and (iii) a web server that provides a platform for easy and accessible pMHC modeling. We further show that structures predicted by APE-Gen2.0 can be used to assess the effects that PTMs have in binding affinity in a more accurate manner than just using solely the sequence of the peptide. APE-Gen2.0 is freely available at https://apegen.kavrakilab.org.
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Affiliation(s)
- Romanos Fasoulis
- Department
of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, United States
| | - Mauricio M. Rigo
- Department
of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, United States
| | - Gregory Lizée
- Department
of Melanoma Medical Oncology—Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77054, United States
| | - Dinler A. Antunes
- Department
of Biology and Biochemistry, University
of Houston, Houston, Texas 77004, United States
| | - Lydia E. Kavraki
- Department
of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, United States
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8
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Antunes DA, Baker BM, Cornberg M, Selin LK. Editorial: Quantification and prediction of T-cell cross-reactivity through experimental and computational methods. Front Immunol 2024; 15:1377259. [PMID: 38444853 PMCID: PMC10912571 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1377259] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2024] [Accepted: 02/05/2024] [Indexed: 03/07/2024] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Dinler A. Antunes
- Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Brian M. Baker
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Harper Cancer Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, United States
| | - Markus Cornberg
- Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Infectious Diseases and Endocrinology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
- Centre for Individualized Infection Medicine (CiiM), c/o CRC Hannover, Hannover, Germany
- German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Partner-site Hannover-Braunschweig, Hannover, Germany
| | - Liisa K. Selin
- Department of Pathology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, United States
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9
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Custodio JM, Ayres CM, Rosales TJ, Brambley CA, Arbuiso AG, Landau LM, Keller GLJ, Srivastava PK, Baker BM. Structural and physical features that distinguish tumor-controlling from inactive cancer neoepitopes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2312057120. [PMID: 38085776 PMCID: PMC10742377 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2312057120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2023] [Accepted: 10/23/2023] [Indexed: 12/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Neoepitopes arising from amino acid substitutions due to single nucleotide polymorphisms are targets of T cell immune responses to cancer and are of significant interest in the development of cancer vaccines. However, understanding the characteristics of rare protective neoepitopes that truly control tumor growth has been a challenge, due to their scarcity as well as the challenge of verifying true, neoepitope-dependent tumor control in humans. Taking advantage of recent work in mouse models that circumvented these challenges, here, we compared the structural and physical properties of neoepitopes that range from fully protective to immunologically inactive. As neoepitopes are derived from self-peptides that can induce immune tolerance, we studied not only how the various neoepitopes differ from each other but also from their wild-type counterparts. We identified multiple features associated with protection, including features that describe how neoepitopes differ from self as well as features associated with recognition by diverse T cell receptor repertoires. We demonstrate both the promise and limitations of neoepitope structural analysis and predictive modeling and illustrate important aspects that can be incorporated into neoepitope prediction pipelines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jean M. Custodio
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Harper Cancer Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN46556
| | - Cory M. Ayres
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Harper Cancer Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN46556
| | - Tatiana J. Rosales
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Harper Cancer Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN46556
| | - Chad A. Brambley
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Harper Cancer Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN46556
| | - Alyssa G. Arbuiso
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Harper Cancer Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN46556
| | - Lauren M. Landau
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Harper Cancer Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN46556
| | - Grant L. J. Keller
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Harper Cancer Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN46556
| | - Pramod K. Srivastava
- Department of Immunology, and Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, CT06030
| | - Brian M. Baker
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Harper Cancer Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN46556
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10
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Linsley P, Nakayama M, Balmas E, Chen J, Pour F, Bansal S, Serti E, Speake C, Pugliese A, Cerosaletti K. Self-reactive germline-like TCR alpha chains shared between blood and pancreas. RESEARCH SQUARE 2023:rs.3.rs-3446917. [PMID: 37886513 PMCID: PMC10602137 DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3446917/v1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2023]
Abstract
Human islet antigen reactive CD4 + memory T cells (IAR T cells) from peripheral blood have been studied extensively for their role in the pathogenesis of autoimmune type 1 diabetes (T1D). However, IAR T cells are rare, and it remains poorly understood how they affect T1D progression in the pancreas. Using single cell RNA-sequencing coupled with a multiplexed activation induced marker (AIM) enrichment assay, we identified paired TCR alpha/beta (TRA/TRB) T cell receptors (TCRs) in IAR T cells from the blood of healthy, at-risk, new onset, and established T1D donors. Using TCR sequences as barcodes, we measured infiltration of IAR T cells from blood into pancreas of organ donors with and without T1D. We detected extensive TCR sharing between IAR T cells from peripheral blood and pancreatic infiltrating T cells (PIT), with perfectly matched or single mismatched TRA junctions and J gene regions, comprising ~ 34% of unique IAR TCRs. PIT-matching IAR T cells had public TRA chains that showed increased use of germline-encoded residues in epitope engagement and a propensity for cross-reactivity. The link with T cells in the pancreas implicates autoreactive IAR T cells with shared TRA junctions and increased levels in blood with the prediabetic and new onset phases of T1D progression.
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11
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Gupta S, Nerli S, Kutti Kandy S, Mersky GL, Sgourakis NG. HLA3DB: comprehensive annotation of peptide/HLA complexes enables blind structure prediction of T cell epitopes. Nat Commun 2023; 14:6349. [PMID: 37816745 PMCID: PMC10564892 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-42163-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2023] [Accepted: 09/29/2023] [Indexed: 10/12/2023] Open
Abstract
The class I proteins of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC-I) display epitopic peptides derived from endogenous proteins on the cell surface for immune surveillance. Accurate modeling of peptides bound to the human MHC, HLA, has been mired by conformational diversity of the central peptide residues, which are critical for recognition by T cell receptors. Here, analysis of X-ray crystal structures within our curated database (HLA3DB) shows that pHLA complexes encompassing multiple HLA allotypes present a discrete set of peptide backbone conformations. Leveraging these backbones, we employ a regression model trained on terms of a physically relevant energy function to develop a comparative modeling approach for nonamer pHLA structures named RepPred. Our method outperforms the top pHLA modeling approach by up to 19% in structural accuracy, and consistently predicts blind targets not included in our training set. Insights from our work may be applied towards predicting antigen immunogenicity, and receptor cross-reactivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sagar Gupta
- Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- College of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Santrupti Nerli
- Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Sreeja Kutti Kandy
- Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Glenn L Mersky
- Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Nikolaos G Sgourakis
- Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
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12
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Ghoreyshi ZS, George JT. Quantitative approaches for decoding the specificity of the human T cell repertoire. Front Immunol 2023; 14:1228873. [PMID: 37781387 PMCID: PMC10539903 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1228873] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2023] [Accepted: 08/17/2023] [Indexed: 10/03/2023] Open
Abstract
T cell receptor (TCR)-peptide-major histocompatibility complex (pMHC) interactions play a vital role in initiating immune responses against pathogens, and the specificity of TCRpMHC interactions is crucial for developing optimized therapeutic strategies. The advent of high-throughput immunological and structural evaluation of TCR and pMHC has provided an abundance of data for computational approaches that aim to predict favorable TCR-pMHC interactions. Current models are constructed using information on protein sequence, structures, or a combination of both, and utilize a variety of statistical learning-based approaches for identifying the rules governing specificity. This review examines the current theoretical, computational, and deep learning approaches for identifying TCR-pMHC recognition pairs, placing emphasis on each method's mathematical approach, predictive performance, and limitations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zahra S. Ghoreyshi
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States
| | - Jason T. George
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States
- Engineering Medicine Program, Texas A&M University, Houston, TX, United States
- Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, Rice University, Houston, TX, United States
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13
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Gouttefangeas C, Klein R, Maia A. The good and the bad of T cell cross-reactivity: challenges and opportunities for novel therapeutics in autoimmunity and cancer. Front Immunol 2023; 14:1212546. [PMID: 37409132 PMCID: PMC10319254 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1212546] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2023] [Accepted: 05/24/2023] [Indexed: 07/07/2023] Open
Abstract
T cells are main actors of the immune system with an essential role in protection against pathogens and cancer. The molecular key event involved in this absolutely central task is the interaction of membrane-bound specific T cell receptors with peptide-MHC complexes which initiates T cell priming, activation and recall, and thus controls a range of downstream functions. While textbooks teach us that the repertoire of mature T cells is highly diverse, it is clear that this diversity cannot possibly cover all potential foreign peptides that might be encountered during life. TCR cross-reactivity, i.e. the ability of a single TCR to recognise different peptides, offers the best solution to this biological challenge. Reports have shown that indeed, TCR cross-reactivity is surprisingly high. Hence, the T cell dilemma is the following: be as specific as possible to target foreign danger and spare self, while being able to react to a large spectrum of body-threatening situations. This has major consequences for both autoimmune diseases and cancer, and significant implications for the development of T cell-based therapies. In this review, we will present essential experimental evidence of T cell cross-reactivity, implications for two opposite immune conditions, i.e. autoimmunity vs cancer, and how this can be differently exploited for immunotherapy approaches. Finally, we will discuss the tools available for predicting cross-reactivity and how improvements in this field might boost translational approaches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cécile Gouttefangeas
- Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
- Cluster of Excellence iFIT (EXC2180) “Image-Guided and Functionally Instructed Tumor Therapies”, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- German Cancer Consortium (DKTK) and German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) partner site Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Reinhild Klein
- Department of Hematology, Oncology, Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, University Hospital Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Ana Maia
- Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
- Cluster of Excellence iFIT (EXC2180) “Image-Guided and Functionally Instructed Tumor Therapies”, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
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14
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Hall-Swan S, Slone J, Rigo MM, Antunes DA, Lizée G, Kavraki LE. PepSim: T-cell cross-reactivity prediction via comparison of peptide sequence and peptide-HLA structure. Front Immunol 2023; 14:1108303. [PMID: 37187737 PMCID: PMC10175663 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1108303] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2022] [Accepted: 04/12/2023] [Indexed: 05/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Peptide-HLA class I (pHLA) complexes on the surface of tumor cells can be targeted by cytotoxic T-cells to eliminate tumors, and this is one of the bases for T-cell-based immunotherapies. However, there exist cases where therapeutic T-cells directed towards tumor pHLA complexes may also recognize pHLAs from healthy normal cells. The process where the same T-cell clone recognizes more than one pHLA is referred to as T-cell cross-reactivity and this process is driven mainly by features that make pHLAs similar to each other. T-cell cross-reactivity prediction is critical for designing T-cell-based cancer immunotherapies that are both effective and safe. Methods Here we present PepSim, a novel score to predict T-cell cross-reactivity based on the structural and biochemical similarity of pHLAs. Results and discussion We show our method can accurately separate cross-reactive from non-crossreactive pHLAs in a diverse set of datasets including cancer, viral, and self-peptides. PepSim can be generalized to work on any dataset of class I peptide-HLAs and is freely available as a web server at pepsim.kavrakilab.org.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Hall-Swan
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Jared Slone
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Mauricio M. Rigo
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Dinler A. Antunes
- Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Gregory Lizée
- Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Lydia E. Kavraki
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX, United States
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15
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Ahmed H, Mahmud AR, Siddiquee MFR, Shahriar A, Biswas P, Shimul MEK, Ahmed SZ, Ema TI, Rahman N, Khan MA, Mizan MFR, Emran TB. Role of T cells in cancer immunotherapy: Opportunities and challenges. CANCER PATHOGENESIS AND THERAPY 2023; 1:116-126. [PMID: 38328405 PMCID: PMC10846312 DOI: 10.1016/j.cpt.2022.12.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2022] [Revised: 12/11/2022] [Accepted: 12/16/2022] [Indexed: 09/01/2023]
Abstract
Immunotherapies boosting the immune system's ability to target cancer cells are promising for the treatment of various tumor types, yet clinical responses differ among patients and cancers. Recently, there has been increasing interest in novel cancer immunotherapy practices aimed at triggering T cell-mediated anti-tumor responses. Antigen-directed cytotoxicity mediated by T lymphocytes has become a central focal point in the battle against cancer utilizing the immune system. The molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in the actions of T lymphocytes have directed new therapeutic approaches in cancer immunotherapy, including checkpoint blockade, adoptive and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, and cancer vaccinology. This review addresses all the strategies targeting tumor pathogenesis, including metabolic pathways, to evaluate the clinical significance of current and future immunotherapies for patients with cancer, which are further engaged in T cell activation, differentiation, and response against tumors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hossain Ahmed
- Department of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, University of Development Alternative (UODA), 4/4B, Block A, Lalmatia, Dhaka, 1209, Bangladesh
| | - Aar Rafi Mahmud
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University, Tangail, 1902, Bangladesh
| | | | - Asif Shahriar
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, School of Medicine, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, McAllen, TX, 78504, USA
| | - Partha Biswas
- Department of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biological Science and Technology, Jashore University of Science and Technology (JUST), Jashore, 7408, Bangladesh
| | - Md. Ebrahim Khalil Shimul
- Department of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biological Science and Technology, Jashore University of Science and Technology (JUST), Jashore, 7408, Bangladesh
| | - Shahlaa Zernaz Ahmed
- Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, North South University, Dhaka, 1229, Bangladesh
| | - Tanzila Ismail Ema
- Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, North South University, Dhaka, 1229, Bangladesh
| | - Nova Rahman
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka, 1342, Bangladesh
| | - Md. Arif Khan
- Department of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, University of Development Alternative (UODA), 4/4B, Block A, Lalmatia, Dhaka, 1209, Bangladesh
| | | | - Talha Bin Emran
- Department of Pharmacy, BGC Trust University Bangladesh, Chittagong, 4381, Bangladesh
- Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Daffodil International University, Dhaka, 1207, Bangladesh
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16
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Vujović M, Marcatili P, Chain B, Kaplinsky J, Andresen TL. Signatures of T cell immunity revealed using sequence similarity with TCRDivER algorithm. Commun Biol 2023; 6:357. [PMID: 37002292 PMCID: PMC10066310 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-04702-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2022] [Accepted: 03/13/2023] [Indexed: 04/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Changes in the T cell receptor (TCR) repertoires have become important markers for monitoring disease or therapy progression. With the rise of immunotherapy usage in cancer, infectious and autoimmune disease, accurate assessment and comparison of the "state" of the TCR repertoire has become paramount. One important driver of change within the repertoire is T cell proliferation following immunisation. A way of monitoring this is by investigating large clones of individual T cells believed to bind epitopes connected to the disease. However, as a single target can be bound by many different TCRs, monitoring individual clones cannot fully account for T cell cross-reactivity. Moreover, T cells responding to the same target often exhibit higher sequence similarity, which highlights the importance of accounting for TCR similarity within the repertoire. This complexity of binding relationships between a TCR and its target convolutes comparison of immune responses between individuals or comparisons of TCR repertoires at different timepoints. Here we propose TCRDivER algorithm (T cell Receptor Diversity Estimates for Repertoires), a global method of T cell repertoire comparison using diversity profiles sensitive to both clone size and sequence similarity. This approach allowed for distinction between spleen TCR repertoires of immunised and non-immunised mice, showing the need for including both facets of repertoire changes simultaneously. The analysis revealed biologically interpretable relationships between sequence similarity and clonality. These aid in understanding differences and separation of repertoires stemming from different biological context. With the rise of availability of sequencing data we expect our tool to find broad usage in clinical and research applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Milena Vujović
- DTU HealthTech, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark.
| | - Paolo Marcatili
- DTU HealthTech, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark.
| | - Benny Chain
- UCL Division of Infection and Immunity, University College London, London, UK.
| | - Joseph Kaplinsky
- Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research Ltd, University of Oxford, Nuffield Department of Medicine, Oxford, UK.
| | - Thomas Lars Andresen
- DTU HealthTech, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark.
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17
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Gupta S, Nerli S, Kandy SK, Mersky GL, Sgourakis NG. HLA3DB: comprehensive annotation of peptide/HLA complexes enables blind structure prediction of T cell epitopes. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.03.20.533510. [PMID: 36993660 PMCID: PMC10055217 DOI: 10.1101/2023.03.20.533510] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/31/2023]
Abstract
The class I proteins of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC-I) display epitopic peptides derived from endogenous proteins on the cell surface for immune surveillance. Accurate modeling of peptide/HLA (pHLA, the human MHC) structures has been mired by conformational diversity of the central peptide residues, which are critical for recognition by T cell receptors. Here, analysis of X-ray crystal structures within a curated database (HLA3DB) shows that pHLA complexes encompassing multiple HLA allotypes present a discrete set of peptide backbone conformations. Leveraging these representative backbones, we employ a regression model trained on terms of a physically relevant energy function to develop a comparative modeling approach for nonamer peptide/HLA structures named RepPred. Our method outperforms the top pHLA modeling approach by up to 19% in terms of structural accuracy, and consistently predicts blind targets not included in our training set. Insights from our work provide a framework for linking conformational diversity with antigen immunogenicity and receptor cross-reactivity.
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18
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Baulu E, Gardet C, Chuvin N, Depil S. TCR-engineered T cell therapy in solid tumors: State of the art and perspectives. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eadf3700. [PMID: 36791198 PMCID: PMC9931212 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adf3700] [Citation(s) in RCA: 87] [Impact Index Per Article: 87.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2022] [Accepted: 01/06/2023] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
T cell engineering has changed the landscape of cancer immunotherapy. Chimeric antigen receptor T cells have demonstrated a remarkable efficacy in the treatment of B cell malignancies in hematology. However, their clinical impact on solid tumors has been modest so far. T cells expressing an engineered T cell receptor (TCR-T cells) represent a promising therapeutic alternative. The target repertoire is not limited to membrane proteins, and intrinsic features of TCRs such as high antigen sensitivity and near-to-physiological signaling may improve tumor cell detection and killing while improving T cell persistence. In this review, we present the clinical results obtained with TCR-T cells targeting different tumor antigen families. We detail the different methods that have been developed to identify and optimize a TCR candidate. We also discuss the challenges of TCR-T cell therapies, including toxicity assessment and resistance mechanisms. Last, we share some perspectives and highlight future directions in the field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Estelle Baulu
- Centre de Recherche en Cancérologie de Lyon, Lyon, France
- ErVaccine Technologies, Lyon, France
| | - Célia Gardet
- Centre de Recherche en Cancérologie de Lyon, Lyon, France
| | | | - Stéphane Depil
- Centre de Recherche en Cancérologie de Lyon, Lyon, France
- ErVaccine Technologies, Lyon, France
- Centre Léon Bérard, Lyon, France
- Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France
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19
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Mendes MFDA, de Souza Bragatte M, Vianna P, de Freitas MV, Pöhner I, Richter S, Wade RC, Salzano FM, Vieira GF. MatchTope: A tool to predict the cross reactivity of peptides complexed with Major Histocompatibility Complex I. Front Immunol 2022; 13:930590. [PMID: 36389840 PMCID: PMC9650389 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.930590] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2022] [Accepted: 09/30/2022] [Indexed: 10/12/2023] Open
Abstract
The therapeutic targeting of the immune system, for example in vaccinology and cancer treatment, is a challenging task and the subject of active research. Several in silico tools used for predicting immunogenicity are based on the analysis of peptide sequences binding to the Major Histocompatibility Complex (pMHC). However, few of these bioinformatics tools take into account the pMHC three-dimensional structure. Here, we describe a new bioinformatics tool, MatchTope, developed for predicting peptide similarity, which can trigger cross-reactivity events, by computing and analyzing the electrostatic potentials of pMHC complexes. We validated MatchTope by using previously published data from in vitro assays. We thereby demonstrate the strength of MatchTope for similarity prediction between targets derived from several pathogens as well as for indicating possible cross responses between self and tumor peptides. Our results suggest that MatchTope can enhance and speed up future studies in the fields of vaccinology and cancer immunotherapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marcus Fabiano de Almeida Mendes
- Bioinformatic Core, Immunogenetics Laboratory, Genetics Department, Biosciences Institute, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
| | - Marcelo de Souza Bragatte
- Bioinformatic Core, Immunogenetics Laboratory, Genetics Department, Biosciences Institute, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
| | - Priscila Vianna
- Bioinformatic Core, Immunogenetics Laboratory, Genetics Department, Biosciences Institute, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
| | - Martiela Vaz de Freitas
- Bioinformatic Core, Immunogenetics Laboratory, Genetics Department, Biosciences Institute, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
| | - Ina Pöhner
- Molecular and Cellular Modeling Group, Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Stefan Richter
- Molecular and Cellular Modeling Group, Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Rebecca C. Wade
- Molecular and Cellular Modeling Group, Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS), Heidelberg, Germany
- Center for Molecular Biology (ZMBH), DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance and Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR), Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Francisco Mauro Salzano
- Bioinformatic Core, Immunogenetics Laboratory, Genetics Department, Biosciences Institute, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
| | - Gustavo Fioravanti Vieira
- Bioinformatic Core, Immunogenetics Laboratory, Genetics Department, Biosciences Institute, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
- Post-Graduation Program in Health and Human Development, Universidade La Salle Canoas, Canoas, Brazil
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20
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T. RR, Smith JC. Structural patterns in class 1 major histocompatibility complex‐restricted nonamer peptide binding to T‐cell receptors. Proteins 2022; 90:1645-1654. [DOI: 10.1002/prot.26343] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2021] [Revised: 03/12/2022] [Accepted: 03/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Rajitha Rajeshwar T.
- Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology University of Tennessee Knoxville Tennessee USA
- UT/ORNL Center for Molecular Biophysics Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge Tennessee USA
| | - Jeremy C. Smith
- Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology University of Tennessee Knoxville Tennessee USA
- UT/ORNL Center for Molecular Biophysics Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge Tennessee USA
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21
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Baumgaertner P, Schmidt J, Costa-Nunes CM, Bordry N, Guillaume P, Luescher I, Speiser DE, Rufer N, Hebeisen M. CD8 T cell function and cross-reactivity explored by stepwise increased peptide-HLA versus TCR affinity. Front Immunol 2022; 13:973986. [PMID: 36032094 PMCID: PMC9399405 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.973986] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2022] [Accepted: 07/22/2022] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Recruitment and activation of CD8 T cells occur through specific triggering of T cell receptor (TCR) by peptide-bound human leucocyte antigen (HLA) ligands. Within the generated trimeric TCR-peptide:HLA complex, the molecular binding affinities between peptide and HLA, and between TCR and peptide:HLA both impact T cell functional outcomes. However, how their individual and combined effects modulate immunogenicity and overall T cell responsiveness has not been investigated systematically. Here, we established two panels of human tumor peptide variants differing in their affinity to HLA. For precise characterization, we developed the “blue peptide assay”, an upgraded cell-based approach to measure the peptide:HLA affinity. These peptide variants were then used to investigate the cross-reactivity of tumor antigen-specific CD8 T cell clonotypes derived from blood of cancer patients after vaccination with either the native or an affinity-optimized Melan-A/MART-1 epitope, or isolated from tumor infiltrated lymph nodes (TILNs). Vaccines containing the native tumor epitope generated T cells with better functionality, and superior cross-reactivity against potential low affinity escape epitopes, as compared to T cells induced by vaccines containing an HLA affinity-optimized epitope. Comparatively, Melan-A/MART-1-specific TILN cells displayed functional and cross-reactive profiles that were heterogeneous and clonotype-dependent. Finally, we took advantage of a collection of T cells expressing affinity-optimized NY-ESO-1-specific TCRs to interrogate the individual and combined impact of peptide:HLA and TCR-pHLA affinities on overall CD8 T cell responses. We found profound and distinct effects of both biophysical parameters, with additive contributions and absence of hierarchical dominance. Altogether, the biological impact of peptide:HLA and TCR-pHLA affinities on T cell responses was carefully dissected in two antigenic systems, frequently targeted in human cancer immunotherapy. Our technology and stepwise comparison open new insights into the rational design and selection of vaccine-associated tumor-specific epitopes and highlight the functional and cross-reactivity profiles that endow T cells with best tumor control capacity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Petra Baumgaertner
- Department of Oncology, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Epalinges, Switzerland
- Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Lausanne Branch - University of Lausanne, Epalinges, Switzerland
- *Correspondence: Michael Hebeisen, ; Petra Baumgaertner,
| | - Julien Schmidt
- Department of Oncology, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Epalinges, Switzerland
- Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Lausanne Branch - University of Lausanne, Epalinges, Switzerland
| | - Carla-Marisa Costa-Nunes
- Department of Oncology, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Epalinges, Switzerland
- Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Lausanne Branch - University of Lausanne, Epalinges, Switzerland
| | - Natacha Bordry
- Department of Oncology, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Epalinges, Switzerland
- Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Lausanne Branch - University of Lausanne, Epalinges, Switzerland
| | - Philippe Guillaume
- Department of Oncology, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Epalinges, Switzerland
- Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Lausanne Branch - University of Lausanne, Epalinges, Switzerland
| | - Immanuel Luescher
- Department of Oncology, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Epalinges, Switzerland
- Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Lausanne Branch - University of Lausanne, Epalinges, Switzerland
| | - Daniel E. Speiser
- Department of Oncology, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Epalinges, Switzerland
- Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Lausanne Branch - University of Lausanne, Epalinges, Switzerland
| | - Nathalie Rufer
- Department of Oncology, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Epalinges, Switzerland
- Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Lausanne Branch - University of Lausanne, Epalinges, Switzerland
| | - Michael Hebeisen
- Department of Oncology, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Epalinges, Switzerland
- Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Lausanne Branch - University of Lausanne, Epalinges, Switzerland
- *Correspondence: Michael Hebeisen, ; Petra Baumgaertner,
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22
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Antonio EC, Meireles MR, Bragatte MADS, Vieira GF. Viral immunogenic footprints conferring T cell cross-protection to SARS-CoV-2 and its variants. Front Immunol 2022; 13:931372. [PMID: 35967415 PMCID: PMC9366040 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.931372] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2022] [Accepted: 07/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
COVID-19 brought scenes from sci-fi movies into real life. Infected individuals include asymptomatic cases to severe disease leading to death, suggesting the involvement of the genetic constitution of populations and pathogens contributing to differential individuals' outcomes. To investigate shared immunogenic features between SARS-CoV-2 targets and other coronaviruses, we modeled their peptides in 3D structures of HLA-A*02:01 (pMHC), comparing their molecular surfaces These structures were also compared with a panel of epitopes from unrelated viruses, looking for potential triggers conferring cross-protection in uninfected individuals. As expected, SARS-CoV 1 and 2 peptides share molecular and physicochemical features, providing an explanation for the verified experimental immunogenicity among them. Surprisingly, even discordant sequences from human coronaviruses 229E, OC43 and epitopes from unrelated viruses involved in endemic human infections exhibit similar fingerprints of immunogenicity with SARS-CoV-2 peptides. The same approach indicates a conserved CD8+ T cell recognition between Wuhan SARS-CoV-2 sequences and altered peptides from Variants of Concern. Examination of structural data over epitope sequence analysis here could explain how previous infections may produce a heterologous immunity response in a global scale against emergent diseases such as Covid-19, mitigating its full lethal potential, and paves the way for the development of wide spectrum vaccine development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eduardo Cheuiche Antonio
- Post Graduation Program in Genetics and Molecular Biology, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
| | - Mariana Rost Meireles
- Post Graduation Program in Genetics and Molecular Biology, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
| | | | - Gustavo Fioravanti Vieira
- Post Graduation Program in Genetics and Molecular Biology, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
- Post Graduation Program in Health and Human Development, Universidade La Salle Canoas, Canoas, Brazil
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23
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Simister PC, Border EC, Vieira JF, Pumphrey NJ. Structural insights into engineering a T-cell receptor targeting MAGE-A10 with higher affinity and specificity for cancer immunotherapy. J Immunother Cancer 2022; 10:jitc-2022-004600. [PMID: 35851311 PMCID: PMC9295655 DOI: 10.1136/jitc-2022-004600] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND T-cell receptor (TCR) immunotherapy is becoming a viable modality in cancer treatment with efficacy in clinical trials. The safety of patients is paramount, so innovative cell engineering methods are being employed to exploit adaptive immunity while controlling the factors governing antigen receptor (ie, TCR) specificity and cross-reactivity. We recently reported a TCR engineering campaign and selectivity profiling assay (X-scan) targeting a melanoma antigen gene (MAGE)-A10 peptide. This helped to distinguish between two well-performing TCRs based on cross-reactivity potential during preclinical drug evaluation, allowing one to be advanced to T-cell immunotherapeutic clinical trials. Here, we present three-dimensional structural information on those TCRs, highlighting engineering improvements and molecular mechanisms likely underpinning differential selectivity. METHODS Parental and engineered TCRs were purified and crystallized either alone or complexed to human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-A*02:01 presenting the MAGE-A10 9-mer peptide, GLYDGMEHL (pHLA/MAGE-A10-9). Using X-ray diffraction, we solved four high-resolution crystal structures and evaluated them relative to previously reported functional results. RESULTS The unligated parental TCR displayed similar complementarity-determining region (CDR) loop conformations when bound to pHLA/MAGE-A10-9; a rigid-body movement of TCR beta chain variable domain (TRBV) relative to TCR alpha chain variable domain helped optimal pHLA engagement. This first view of an HLA-bound MAGE-A10 peptide revealed an intrachain non-covalent 'staple' between peptide Tyr3 and Glu7. A subtle Glu31-Asp mutation in βCDR1 of the parental TCR generated a high-affinity derivative. Its pHLA-complexed structure shows that the shorter Asp leans toward the pHLA with resulting rigid-body TRBV shift, creating localized changes around the peptide's C-terminus. Structural comparison with a less selective TCR indicated that differential cross-reactivity to MAGE-A10 peptide variants is most readily explained by alterations in surface electrostatics, and the size and geometry of TCR-peptide interfacial cavities. CONCLUSIONS Modest changes in engineered TCRs targeting MAGE-A10 produced significantly different properties. Conformational invariance of TCR and antigen peptide plus more space-filling CDR loop sequences may be desirable properties for clinically relevant TCR-pHLA systems to reduce the likelihood of structurally similar peptide mimics being tolerated by a TCR. Such properties may partially explain why the affinity-enhanced, in vitro-selected TCR has been generally well tolerated in patients.
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24
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Jackson KR, Antunes DA, Talukder AH, Maleki AR, Amagai K, Salmon A, Katailiha AS, Chiu Y, Fasoulis R, Rigo MM, Abella JR, Melendez BD, Li F, Sun Y, Sonnemann HM, Belousov V, Frenkel F, Justesen S, Makaju A, Liu Y, Horn D, Lopez-Ferrer D, Huhmer AF, Hwu P, Roszik J, Hawke D, Kavraki LE, Lizée G. Charge-based interactions through peptide position 4 drive diversity of antigen presentation by human leukocyte antigen class I molecules. PNAS NEXUS 2022; 1:pgac124. [PMID: 36003074 PMCID: PMC9391200 DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac124] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2022] [Accepted: 07/20/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Human leukocyte antigen class I (HLA-I) molecules bind and present peptides at the cell surface to facilitate the induction of appropriate CD8+ T cell-mediated immune responses to pathogen- and self-derived proteins. The HLA-I peptide-binding cleft contains dominant anchor sites in the B and F pockets that interact primarily with amino acids at peptide position 2 and the C-terminus, respectively. Nonpocket peptide-HLA interactions also contribute to peptide binding and stability, but these secondary interactions are thought to be unique to individual HLA allotypes or to specific peptide antigens. Here, we show that two positively charged residues located near the top of peptide-binding cleft facilitate interactions with negatively charged residues at position 4 of presented peptides, which occur at elevated frequencies across most HLA-I allotypes. Loss of these interactions was shown to impair HLA-I/peptide binding and complex stability, as demonstrated by both in vitro and in silico experiments. Furthermore, mutation of these Arginine-65 (R65) and/or Lysine-66 (K66) residues in HLA-A*02:01 and A*24:02 significantly reduced HLA-I cell surface expression while also reducing the diversity of the presented peptide repertoire by up to 5-fold. The impact of the R65 mutation demonstrates that nonpocket HLA-I/peptide interactions can constitute anchor motifs that exert an unexpectedly broad influence on HLA-I-mediated antigen presentation. These findings provide fundamental insights into peptide antigen binding that could broadly inform epitope discovery in the context of viral vaccine development and cancer immunotherapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kyle R Jackson
- University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX, USA
- Department of Melanoma, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Dinler A Antunes
- Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Amjad H Talukder
- Department of Melanoma, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Ariana R Maleki
- Department of Melanoma, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Kano Amagai
- Department of Melanoma, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Avery Salmon
- University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX, USA
- Department of Immunology, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Arjun S Katailiha
- Department of Melanoma, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Yulun Chiu
- Department of Melanoma, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Romanos Fasoulis
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
| | | | - Jayvee R Abella
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Brenda D Melendez
- University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX, USA
- Department of Melanoma, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Fenge Li
- Department of Melanoma, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Yimo Sun
- University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX, USA
- Department of Melanoma, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Heather M Sonnemann
- University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX, USA
- Department of Melanoma, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | | | | | | | | | - Yang Liu
- ThermoFisher Scientific, San Jose, CA, USA
| | - David Horn
- ThermoFisher Scientific, San Jose, CA, USA
| | | | | | - Patrick Hwu
- Department of Melanoma, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Jason Roszik
- Department of Melanoma, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - David Hawke
- Department of Systems Biology, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Lydia E Kavraki
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Gregory Lizée
- Department of Melanoma, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
- Department of Immunology, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
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25
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Keller GLJ, Weiss LI, Baker BM. Physicochemical Heuristics for Identifying High Fidelity, Near-Native Structural Models of Peptide/MHC Complexes. Front Immunol 2022; 13:887759. [PMID: 35547730 PMCID: PMC9084917 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.887759] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2022] [Accepted: 03/29/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
There is long-standing interest in accurately modeling the structural features of peptides bound and presented by class I MHC proteins. This interest has grown with the advent of rapid genome sequencing and the prospect of personalized, peptide-based cancer vaccines, as well as the development of molecular and cellular therapeutics based on T cell receptor recognition of peptide-MHC. However, while the speed and accessibility of peptide-MHC modeling has improved substantially over the years, improvements in accuracy have been modest. Accuracy is crucial in peptide-MHC modeling, as T cell receptors are highly sensitive to peptide conformation and capturing fine details is therefore necessary for useful models. Studying nonameric peptides presented by the common class I MHC protein HLA-A*02:01, here we addressed a key question common to modern modeling efforts: from a set of models (or decoys) generated through conformational sampling, which is best? We found that the common strategy of decoy selection by lowest energy can lead to substantial errors in predicted structures. We therefore adopted a data-driven approach and trained functions capable of predicting near native decoys with exceptionally high accuracy. Although our implementation is limited to nonamer/HLA-A*02:01 complexes, our results serve as an important proof of concept from which improvements can be made and, given the significance of HLA-A*02:01 and its preference for nonameric peptides, should have immediate utility in select immunotherapeutic and other efforts for which structural information would be advantageous.
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Affiliation(s)
- Grant L J Keller
- Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and the Harper Cancer Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, United States
| | - Laura I Weiss
- Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and the Harper Cancer Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, United States
| | - Brian M Baker
- Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and the Harper Cancer Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, United States
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26
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Tarabini RF, Rigo MM, Faustino Fonseca A, Rubin F, Bellé R, Kavraki LE, Ferreto TC, Amaral Antunes D, de Souza APD. Large-Scale Structure-Based Screening of Potential T Cell Cross-Reactivities Involving Peptide-Targets From BCG Vaccine and SARS-CoV-2. Front Immunol 2022; 12:812176. [PMID: 35095907 PMCID: PMC8793865 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.812176] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2021] [Accepted: 12/21/2021] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Although not being the first viral pandemic to affect humankind, we are now for the first time faced with a pandemic caused by a coronavirus. The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused more than 4.5 million deaths worldwide. Despite unprecedented efforts, with vaccines being developed in a record time, SARS-CoV-2 continues to spread worldwide with new variants arising in different countries. Such persistent spread is in part enabled by public resistance to vaccination in some countries, and limited access to vaccines in other countries. The limited vaccination coverage, the continued risk for resistant variants, and the existence of natural reservoirs for coronaviruses, highlight the importance of developing additional therapeutic strategies against SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses. At the beginning of the pandemic it was suggested that countries with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination programs could be associated with a reduced number and/or severity of COVID-19 cases. Preliminary studies have provided evidence for this relationship and further investigation is being conducted in ongoing clinical trials. The protection against SARS-CoV-2 induced by BCG vaccination may be mediated by cross-reactive T cell lymphocytes, which recognize peptides displayed by class I Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA-I) on the surface of infected cells. In order to identify potential targets of T cell cross-reactivity, we implemented an in silico strategy combining sequence-based and structure-based methods to screen over 13,5 million possible cross-reactive peptide pairs from BCG and SARS-CoV-2. Our study produced (i) a list of immunogenic BCG-derived peptides that may prime T cell cross-reactivity against SARS-CoV-2, (ii) a large dataset of modeled peptide-HLA structures for the screened targets, and (iii) new computational methods for structure-based screenings that can be used by others in future studies. Our study expands the list of BCG peptides potentially involved in T cell cross-reactivity with SARS-CoV-2-derived peptides, and identifies multiple high-density "neighborhoods" of cross-reactive peptides which could be driving heterologous immunity induced by BCG vaccination, therefore providing insights for future vaccine development efforts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renata Fioravanti Tarabini
- Laboratory of Clinical and Experimental Immunology, Infant Center, School of Health Science, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Porto Alegre, Brazil
| | | | - André Faustino Fonseca
- Antunes Lab, Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Felipe Rubin
- School of Technology - Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Porto Alegre, Brazil
| | - Rafael Bellé
- Laboratório de alto desempenho – Centro de Apoio ao desenvolvimento cientifico e tecnológico da (IDEIA), Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Porto Alegre, Brazil
| | - Lydia E Kavraki
- Kavraki Lab, Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Tiago Coelho Ferreto
- School of Technology - Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Porto Alegre, Brazil,Laboratório de alto desempenho – Centro de Apoio ao desenvolvimento cientifico e tecnológico da (IDEIA), Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Porto Alegre, Brazil
| | - Dinler Amaral Antunes
- Antunes Lab, Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, Houston, TX, United States,*Correspondence: Ana Paula Duarte de Souza, ; Dinler Amaral Antunes,
| | - Ana Paula Duarte de Souza
- Laboratory of Clinical and Experimental Immunology, Infant Center, School of Health Science, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Porto Alegre, Brazil,*Correspondence: Ana Paula Duarte de Souza, ; Dinler Amaral Antunes,
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27
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Clark F, Gil A, Thapa I, Aslan N, Ghersi D, Selin LK. Cross-reactivity influences changes in human influenza A virus and Epstein Barr virus specific CD8 memory T cell receptor alpha and beta repertoires between young and old. Front Immunol 2022; 13:1011935. [PMID: 36923729 PMCID: PMC10009332 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.1011935] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2022] [Accepted: 12/30/2022] [Indexed: 03/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Older people have difficulty controlling infection with common viruses such as influenza A virus (IAV), RNA virus which causes recurrent infections due to a high rate of genetic mutation, and Epstein Barr virus (EBV), DNA virus which persists in B cells for life in the 95% of people that become acutely infected. We questioned whether changes in epitope-specific memory CD8 T cell receptor (TCR) repertoires to these two common viruses could occur with increasing age and contribute to waning immunity. We compared CD8 memory TCR alpha and beta repertoires in two HLA-A2+ EBV- and IAV-immune donors, young (Y) and older (O) donors to three immunodominant epitopes known to be cross-reactive, IAV-M158-66 (IAV-M1), EBV-BMLF1280-288 (EBV-BM), and EBV-BRLF1109-117 (EBV-BR). We, therefore, also designed these studies to examine if TCR cross-reactivity could contribute to changes in repertoire with increasing age. TCR high throughput sequencing showed a significant difference in the pattern of TRBV usage between Y and O. However, there were many more differences in AV and AJ usage, between the age groups suggesting that changes in TCRα usage may play a greater role in evolution of the TCR repertoire emphasizing the importance of studying TRAV repertoires. With increasing age there was a preferential retention of TCR for all three epitopes with features in their complementarity-determining region (CDR3) that increased their ease of generation, and their cross-reactive potential. Young and older donors differed in the patterns of AV/AJ and BV/BJ pairings and usage of dominant CDR3 motifs specific to all three epitopes. Both young and older donors had cross-reactive responses between these 3 epitopes, which were unique and differed from the cognate responses having features that suggested they could interact with either ligand. There was an increased tendency for the classic IAV-M1 specific clone BV19-IRSS-JB2.7/AV27-CAGGGSQGNLIF-AJ42 to appear among the cross-reactive clones, suggesting that the dominance of this clone may relate to its cross-reactivity with EBV. These results suggest that although young and older donors retain classic TCR features for each epitope their repertoires are gradually changing with age, maintaining TCRs that are cross-reactive between these two common human viruses, one with recurrent infections and the other a persistent virus which frequently reactivates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fransenio Clark
- Department of Pathology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, United States
| | - Anna Gil
- Department of Pathology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, United States
| | - Ishwor Thapa
- School of Interdisciplinary Informatics, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE, United States
| | - Nuray Aslan
- Department of Pathology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, United States
| | - Dario Ghersi
- School of Interdisciplinary Informatics, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE, United States
| | - Liisa K Selin
- Department of Pathology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, United States
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28
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Mauriello A, Cavalluzzo B, Manolio C, Ragone C, Luciano A, Barbieri A, Tornesello ML, Buonaguro FM, Tagliamonte M, Buonaguro L. Long-term memory T cells as preventive anticancer immunity elicited by TuA-derived heteroclitic peptides. J Transl Med 2021; 19:526. [PMID: 34952611 PMCID: PMC8709997 DOI: 10.1186/s12967-021-03194-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2021] [Accepted: 12/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
The host's immune system may be primed against antigens during the lifetime (e.g. microorganisms antigens-MoAs), and swiftly recalled upon growth of a tumor expressing antigens similar in sequence and structure. C57BL/6 mice were immunized in a preventive setting with tumor antigens (TuAs) or corresponding heteroclitic peptides specific for TC-1 and B16 cell lines. Immediately or 2-months after the end of the vaccination protocol, animals were implanted with cell lines. The specific anti-vaccine immune response as well as tumor growth were regularly evaluated for 2 months post-implantation. The preventive vaccination with TuA or their heteroclitic peptides (hPep) was able to delay (B16) or completely suppress (TC-1) tumor growth when cancer cells were implanted immediately after the end of the vaccination. More importantly, TC-1 tumor growth was significantly delayed, and suppressed in 6/8 animals, also when cells were implanted 2-months after the end of the vaccination. The vaccine-specific T cell response provided a strong immune correlate to the pattern of tumor growth. A preventive immunization with heteroclitic peptides resembling a TuA is able to strongly delay or even suppress tumor growth in a mouse model. More importantly, the same effect is observed also when tumor cells are implanted 2 months after the end of vaccination, which corresponds to 8 - 10 years in human life. The observed potent tumor control indicates that a memory T cell immunity elicited during the lifetime by a antigens similar to a TuA, i.e. viral antigens, may ultimately represent a great advantage for cancer patients and may lead to a novel preventive anti-cancer vaccine strategy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Angela Mauriello
- Lab of Innovative Immunological Models, Istituto Nazionale Tumori - IRCCS "Fondazione Pascale", Via Mariano Semmola, 52, 80131, Naples, Italy
| | - Beatrice Cavalluzzo
- Lab of Innovative Immunological Models, Istituto Nazionale Tumori - IRCCS "Fondazione Pascale", Via Mariano Semmola, 52, 80131, Naples, Italy
| | - Carmen Manolio
- Lab of Innovative Immunological Models, Istituto Nazionale Tumori - IRCCS "Fondazione Pascale", Via Mariano Semmola, 52, 80131, Naples, Italy
| | - Concetta Ragone
- Lab of Innovative Immunological Models, Istituto Nazionale Tumori - IRCCS "Fondazione Pascale", Via Mariano Semmola, 52, 80131, Naples, Italy
| | - Antonio Luciano
- Animal Facility, Istituto Nazionale Tumori - IRCCS "Fondazione Pascale", Naples, Italy
| | - Antonio Barbieri
- Animal Facility, Istituto Nazionale Tumori - IRCCS "Fondazione Pascale", Naples, Italy
| | - Maria Lina Tornesello
- Mol Biol and Viral Oncogenesis, Istituto Nazionale Tumori - IRCCS "Fondazione Pascale", Naples, Italy
| | - Franco M Buonaguro
- Mol Biol and Viral Oncogenesis, Istituto Nazionale Tumori - IRCCS "Fondazione Pascale", Naples, Italy
| | - Maria Tagliamonte
- Lab of Innovative Immunological Models, Istituto Nazionale Tumori - IRCCS "Fondazione Pascale", Via Mariano Semmola, 52, 80131, Naples, Italy
| | - Luigi Buonaguro
- Lab of Innovative Immunological Models, Istituto Nazionale Tumori - IRCCS "Fondazione Pascale", Via Mariano Semmola, 52, 80131, Naples, Italy.
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29
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Barbosa CRR, Barton J, Shepherd AJ, Mishto M. Mechanistic diversity in MHC class I antigen recognition. Biochem J 2021; 478:4187-4202. [PMID: 34940832 PMCID: PMC8786304 DOI: 10.1042/bcj20200910] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2021] [Revised: 11/16/2021] [Accepted: 11/18/2021] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Throughout its evolution, the human immune system has developed a plethora of strategies to diversify the antigenic peptide sequences that can be targeted by the CD8+ T cell response against pathogens and aberrations of self. Here we provide a general overview of the mechanisms that lead to the diversity of antigens presented by MHC class I complexes and their recognition by CD8+ T cells, together with a more detailed analysis of recent progress in two important areas that are highly controversial: the prevalence and immunological relevance of unconventional antigen peptides; and cross-recognition of antigenic peptides by the T cell receptors of CD8+ T cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Camila R. R. Barbosa
- Centre for Inflammation Biology and Cancer Immunology (CIBCI) & Peter Gorer Department of Immunobiology, King's College London, SE1 1UL London, U.K
- Francis Crick Institute, NW1 1AT London, U.K
| | - Justin Barton
- Department of Biological Sciences and Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, Birkbeck, University of London, WC1E 7HX London, U.K
| | - Adrian J. Shepherd
- Department of Biological Sciences and Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, Birkbeck, University of London, WC1E 7HX London, U.K
| | - Michele Mishto
- Centre for Inflammation Biology and Cancer Immunology (CIBCI) & Peter Gorer Department of Immunobiology, King's College London, SE1 1UL London, U.K
- Francis Crick Institute, NW1 1AT London, U.K
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30
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Ehrlich R, Kamga L, Gil A, Luzuriaga K, Selin LK, Ghersi D. SwarmTCR: a computational approach to predict the specificity of T cell receptors. BMC Bioinformatics 2021; 22:422. [PMID: 34493215 PMCID: PMC8422754 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-021-04335-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2020] [Accepted: 08/16/2021] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Background With more T cell receptor sequence data becoming available, the need for bioinformatics approaches to predict T cell receptor specificity is even more pressing. Here we present SwarmTCR, a method that uses labeled sequence data to predict the specificity of T cell receptors using a nearest-neighbor approach. SwarmTCR works by optimizing the weights of the individual CDR regions to maximize classification performance. Results We compared the performance of SwarmTCR against another nearest-neighbor method and showed that SwarmTCR performs well both with bulk sequencing data and with single cell data. In addition, we show that the weights returned by SwarmTCR are biologically interpretable. Conclusions Computationally predicting the specificity of T cell receptors can be a powerful tool to shed light on the immune response against infectious diseases and cancers, autoimmunity, cancer immunotherapy, and immunopathology. SwarmTCR is distributed freely under the terms of the GPL-3 license. The source code and all sequencing data are available at GitHub (https://github.com/thecodingdoc/SwarmTCR). Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12859-021-04335-w.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ryan Ehrlich
- School of Interdisciplinary Informatics, College of Information Science and Technology, University of Nebraska at Omaha, 1110 S 67TH, Omaha, NE, 68182, USA
| | - Larisa Kamga
- Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA
| | - Anna Gil
- Department of Pathology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA
| | - Katherine Luzuriaga
- Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA
| | - Liisa K Selin
- Department of Pathology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA
| | - Dario Ghersi
- School of Interdisciplinary Informatics, College of Information Science and Technology, University of Nebraska at Omaha, 1110 S 67TH, Omaha, NE, 68182, USA.
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31
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Singhania A, Pham J, Dhanwani R, Frazier A, Rezende Dutra J, Marder KS, Phillips E, Mallal S, Amara AW, Standaert DG, Sulzer D, Peters B, Sette A, Lindestam Arlehamn CS. The TCR repertoire of α-synuclein-specific T cells in Parkinson's disease is surprisingly diverse. Sci Rep 2021; 11:302. [PMID: 33432042 PMCID: PMC7801678 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-79726-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2020] [Accepted: 12/11/2020] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
The self-antigen α-synuclein (α-syn) was recently shown to be associated with Parkinson's disease (PD). Here we mapped the T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire of α-syn-specific T cells from six PD patients. The self-antigen α-syn-specific repertoire was compared to the repertoire of T cells specific for pertussis (PT), as a representative foreign antigen that most individuals are exposed to, revealing that the repertoire for α-syn was as diverse as the repertoire for PT. The diversity of PT-specific clonotypes was similar between individuals with PD diagnosis and age-matched healthy controls. We found that the TCR repertoire was specific to each PD patient, and no shared TCRs among patients were defined, likely due to differences in HLA expression that select for different subsets of epitope-specific TCR rearrangements. This study provides the first characterization of α-syn-specific TCR clonotypes in individuals with PD. Antigen-specific TCRs can serve as immunotherapeutics and diagnostics, and means to track longitudinal changes in specific T cells, and disease progression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Akul Singhania
- grid.185006.a0000 0004 0461 3162Division of Vaccine Discovery, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, La Jolla, CA 92037 USA
| | - John Pham
- grid.185006.a0000 0004 0461 3162Division of Vaccine Discovery, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, La Jolla, CA 92037 USA
| | - Rekha Dhanwani
- grid.185006.a0000 0004 0461 3162Division of Vaccine Discovery, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, La Jolla, CA 92037 USA
| | - April Frazier
- grid.185006.a0000 0004 0461 3162Division of Vaccine Discovery, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, La Jolla, CA 92037 USA
| | - Juliana Rezende Dutra
- grid.239585.00000 0001 2285 2675Department of Neurology, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY 10032 USA
| | - Karen S. Marder
- grid.239585.00000 0001 2285 2675Department of Neurology, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY 10032 USA
| | - Elizabeth Phillips
- grid.1025.60000 0004 0436 6763Institute for Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Murdoch University, Perth, WA 6150 Australia ,grid.152326.10000 0001 2264 7217Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37235 USA
| | - Simon Mallal
- grid.1025.60000 0004 0436 6763Institute for Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Murdoch University, Perth, WA 6150 Australia ,grid.152326.10000 0001 2264 7217Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37235 USA
| | - Amy W. Amara
- grid.265892.20000000106344187Department of Neurology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35233 USA
| | - David G. Standaert
- grid.265892.20000000106344187Department of Neurology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35233 USA
| | - David Sulzer
- grid.239585.00000 0001 2285 2675Department of Neurology, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY 10032 USA ,grid.239585.00000 0001 2285 2675Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY 10032 USA ,grid.239585.00000 0001 2285 2675Department of Pharmacology, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY 10032 USA
| | - Bjoern Peters
- grid.185006.a0000 0004 0461 3162Division of Vaccine Discovery, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, La Jolla, CA 92037 USA ,grid.266100.30000 0001 2107 4242Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093 USA
| | - Alessandro Sette
- grid.185006.a0000 0004 0461 3162Division of Vaccine Discovery, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, La Jolla, CA 92037 USA ,grid.266100.30000 0001 2107 4242Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093 USA
| | - Cecilia S. Lindestam Arlehamn
- grid.185006.a0000 0004 0461 3162Division of Vaccine Discovery, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, La Jolla, CA 92037 USA
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32
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Affiliation(s)
- Luigi Buonaguro
- Innovative Immunological Models, Istituto Nazionale per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori, "Fondazione Pascale"-IRCCS, Via Mariano Semmola, 52, 80131 Naples, Italy.
| | - Vincenzo Cerullo
- Drug Research Program ImmunoViroTherapy Lab (IVTLAb), Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; iCAN Digital Precision Cancer Medicine Flagship, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; Helsinki Institute of Life Science (HiLIFE), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; Translational Immunology Program (TRIMM), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; Department of Molecular Medicine and Medical Biotechnology, Naples University "Federico II," S. Pansini 5, Italy.
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33
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Abella JR, Antunes D, Jackson K, Lizée G, Clementi C, Kavraki LE. Markov state modeling reveals alternative unbinding pathways for peptide-MHC complexes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:30610-30618. [PMID: 33184174 PMCID: PMC7720115 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2007246117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Peptide binding to major histocompatibility complexes (MHCs) is a central component of the immune system, and understanding the mechanism behind stable peptide-MHC binding will aid the development of immunotherapies. While MHC binding is mostly influenced by the identity of the so-called anchor positions of the peptide, secondary interactions from nonanchor positions are known to play a role in complex stability. However, current MHC-binding prediction methods lack an analysis of the major conformational states and might underestimate the impact of secondary interactions. In this work, we present an atomically detailed analysis of peptide-MHC binding that can reveal the contributions of any interaction toward stability. We propose a simulation framework that uses both umbrella sampling and adaptive sampling to generate a Markov state model (MSM) for a coronavirus-derived peptide (QFKDNVILL), bound to one of the most prevalent MHC receptors in humans (HLA-A24:02). While our model reaffirms the importance of the anchor positions of the peptide in establishing stable interactions, our model also reveals the underestimated importance of position 4 (p4), a nonanchor position. We confirmed our results by simulating the impact of specific peptide mutations and validated these predictions through competitive binding assays. By comparing the MSM of the wild-type system with those of the D4A and D4P mutations, our modeling reveals stark differences in unbinding pathways. The analysis presented here can be applied to any peptide-MHC complex of interest with a structural model as input, representing an important step toward comprehensive modeling of the MHC class I pathway.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jayvee R Abella
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005
| | - Dinler Antunes
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005
| | - Kyle Jackson
- Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology-Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030
| | - Gregory Lizée
- Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology-Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030
| | - Cecilia Clementi
- Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005
- Department of Chemistry, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005
| | - Lydia E Kavraki
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005;
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Stervbo U, Rahmann S, Roch T, Westhoff TH, Babel N. Epitope similarity cannot explain the pre-formed T cell immunity towards structural SARS-CoV-2 proteins. Sci Rep 2020; 10:18995. [PMID: 33149224 PMCID: PMC7642385 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-75972-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2020] [Accepted: 10/18/2020] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
The current pandemic is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus and large progress in understanding the pathology of the virus has been made since its emergence in late 2019. Several reports indicate short lasting immunity against endemic coronaviruses, which contrasts studies showing that biobanked venous blood contains T cells reactive to SARS-CoV-2 S-protein even before the outbreak in Wuhan. This suggests a preformed T cell memory towards structural proteins in individuals not exposed to SARS-CoV-2. Given the similarity of SARS-CoV-2 to other members of the Coronaviridae family, the endemic coronaviruses appear likely candidates to generate this T cell memory. However, given the apparent poor immunological memory created by the endemic coronaviruses, immunity against other common pathogens might offer an alternative explanation. Here, we utilize a combination of epitope prediction and similarity to common human pathogens to identify potential sources of the SARS-CoV-2 T cell memory. Although beta-coronaviruses are the most likely candidates to explain the pre-existing SARS-CoV-2 reactive T cells in uninfected individuals, the SARS-CoV-2 epitopes with the highest similarity to those from beta-coronaviruses are confined to replication associated proteins-not the host interacting S-protein. Thus, our study suggests that the observed SARS-CoV-2 pre-formed immunity to structural proteins is not driven by near-identical epitopes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ulrik Stervbo
- Center for Translational Medicine, University Hospital Marien Hospital Herne, Ruhr-University, Bochum, Germany.
- Berlin-Brandenburg Center for Regenerative Therapies, and Institute of Medical Immunology, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität Zu Berlin, Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany.
| | - Sven Rahmann
- Genome Informatics, Institute of Human Genetics, University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany.
| | - Toralf Roch
- Center for Translational Medicine, University Hospital Marien Hospital Herne, Ruhr-University, Bochum, Germany
- Berlin-Brandenburg Center for Regenerative Therapies, and Institute of Medical Immunology, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität Zu Berlin, Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany
| | - Timm H Westhoff
- Center for Translational Medicine, University Hospital Marien Hospital Herne, Ruhr-University, Bochum, Germany
| | - Nina Babel
- Center for Translational Medicine, University Hospital Marien Hospital Herne, Ruhr-University, Bochum, Germany
- Berlin-Brandenburg Center for Regenerative Therapies, and Institute of Medical Immunology, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität Zu Berlin, Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany
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35
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Lee CH, Salio M, Napolitani G, Ogg G, Simmons A, Koohy H. Predicting Cross-Reactivity and Antigen Specificity of T Cell Receptors. Front Immunol 2020; 11:565096. [PMID: 33193332 PMCID: PMC7642207 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.565096] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2020] [Accepted: 09/07/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Adaptive immune recognition is mediated by specific interactions between heterodimeric T cell receptors (TCRs) and their cognate peptide-MHC (pMHC) ligands, and the methods to accurately predict TCR:pMHC interaction would have profound clinical, therapeutic and pharmaceutical applications. Herein, we review recent developments in predicting cross-reactivity and antigen specificity of TCR recognition. We discuss current experimental and computational approaches to investigate cross-reactivity and antigen-specificity of TCRs and highlight how integrating kinetic, biophysical and structural features may offer valuable insights in modeling immunogenicity. We further underscore the close inter-relationship of these two interconnected notions and the need to investigate each in the light of the other for a better understanding of T cell responsiveness for the effective clinical applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chloe H. Lee
- MRC Human Immunology Unit, Medical Research Council (MRC) Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (WIMM), John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
- MRC WIMM Centre for Computational Biology, Medical Research Council (MRC) Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Mariolina Salio
- MRC Human Immunology Unit, Medical Research Council (MRC) Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (WIMM), John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Giorgio Napolitani
- MRC Human Immunology Unit, Medical Research Council (MRC) Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (WIMM), John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Graham Ogg
- MRC Human Immunology Unit, Medical Research Council (MRC) Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (WIMM), John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Alison Simmons
- MRC Human Immunology Unit, Medical Research Council (MRC) Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (WIMM), John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
- Translational Gastroenterology Unit, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Hashem Koohy
- MRC Human Immunology Unit, Medical Research Council (MRC) Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (WIMM), John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
- MRC WIMM Centre for Computational Biology, Medical Research Council (MRC) Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
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36
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Antunes DA, Abella JR, Hall-Swan S, Devaurs D, Conev A, Moll M, Lizée G, Kavraki LE. HLA-Arena: A Customizable Environment for the Structural Modeling and Analysis of Peptide-HLA Complexes for Cancer Immunotherapy. JCO Clin Cancer Inform 2020; 4:623-636. [PMID: 32667823 PMCID: PMC7397777 DOI: 10.1200/cci.19.00123] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/03/2020] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE HLA protein receptors play a key role in cellular immunity. They bind intracellular peptides and display them for recognition by T-cell lymphocytes. Because T-cell activation is partially driven by structural features of these peptide-HLA complexes, their structural modeling and analysis are becoming central components of cancer immunotherapy projects. Unfortunately, this kind of analysis is limited by the small number of experimentally determined structures of peptide-HLA complexes. Overcoming this limitation requires developing novel computational methods to model and analyze peptide-HLA structures. METHODS Here we describe a new platform for the structural modeling and analysis of peptide-HLA complexes, called HLA-Arena, which we have implemented using Jupyter Notebook and Docker. It is a customizable environment that facilitates the use of computational tools, such as APE-Gen and DINC, which we have previously applied to peptide-HLA complexes. By integrating other commonly used tools, such as MODELLER and MHCflurry, this environment includes support for diverse tasks in structural modeling, analysis, and visualization. RESULTS To illustrate the capabilities of HLA-Arena, we describe 3 example workflows applied to peptide-HLA complexes. Leveraging the strengths of our tools, DINC and APE-Gen, the first 2 workflows show how to perform geometry prediction for peptide-HLA complexes and structure-based binding prediction, respectively. The third workflow presents an example of large-scale virtual screening of peptides for multiple HLA alleles. CONCLUSION These workflows illustrate the potential benefits of HLA-Arena for the structural modeling and analysis of peptide-HLA complexes. Because HLA-Arena can easily be integrated within larger computational pipelines, we expect its potential impact to vastly increase. For instance, it could be used to conduct structural analyses for personalized cancer immunotherapy, neoantigen discovery, or vaccine development.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Sarah Hall-Swan
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX
| | | | - Anja Conev
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX
| | - Mark Moll
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX
| | - Gregory Lizée
- Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology–Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
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Körber N, Behrends U, Protzer U, Bauer T. Evaluation of T-activated proteins as recall antigens to monitor Epstein-Barr virus and human cytomegalovirus-specific T cells in a clinical trial setting. J Transl Med 2020; 18:242. [PMID: 32552697 PMCID: PMC7298696 DOI: 10.1186/s12967-020-02385-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/27/2019] [Accepted: 05/21/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Pools of overlapping synthetic peptides are routinely used for ex vivo monitoring of antigen-specific T-cell responses. However, it is rather unlikely that these peptides match those resulting from naturally processed antigens. T-activated proteins have been described as immunogenic and more natural stimulants, since they have to pass through antigen processing and comprise activation of all clinically relevant effector cell populations. METHODS We performed comparative analysis of numbers and cytokine expression pattern of CD4 and CD8 T cells after stimulation with recombinant, urea-formulated T-activated EBV-BZLF1, -EBNA3A, and HCMV-IE1, and -pp65 proteins or corresponding overlapping peptide pools. Freshly isolated and cryopreserved PBMC of 30 EBV- and 19 HCMV-seropositive and seven EBV- and HCMV-seronegative subjects were stimulated ex vivo and analysed for IFN-γ, TNF and IL-2 production by flow cytometry-based intracellular cytokine staining. RESULTS T-activated proteins showed a high specificity of 100% (EBV-BZLF1, HCMV-IE1, and -pp65) and 86% (EBV-EBNA3A), and a high T-cell stimulatory capacity of 73-95% and 67-95% using freshly isolated and cryopreserved PBMC, respectively. The overall CD4 T-cell response rates in both cohorts were comparable after stimulation with either T-activated protein or peptide pools with the exception of lower numbers of CD8 T cells detected after stimulation with T-activated EBV-EBNA3A- (p = 0.038) and HCMV-pp65- (p = 0.0006). Overall, the number of detectable antigen-specific T cells varied strongly between individuals. Cytokine expression patterns in response to T-activated protein and peptide pool-based stimulation were similar for CD4, but significantly different for CD8 T-cell responses. CONCLUSION EBV and HCMV-derived T-activated proteins represent innovative, highly specific recall antigens suitable for use in immunological endpoint assays to evaluate success or failure in immunotherapy clinical trials (e.g. to assess the risk of EBV and/or HCMV reactivation after allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation). T-activated proteins could be of particular importance, if an impaired antigen processing (e.g. in a post-transplant setting) must be taken into account.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nina Körber
- Institute of Virology, Helmholtz Zentrum München/Technical University of Munich, School of Medicine, Schneckenburgerstr. 8, 81675, Munich, Germany.
| | - Uta Behrends
- Children's Hospital, School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.,Research Unit Gene Vectors, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Munich, Germany.,German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Partner Site, Munich, Germany
| | - Ulrike Protzer
- Institute of Virology, Helmholtz Zentrum München/Technical University of Munich, School of Medicine, Schneckenburgerstr. 8, 81675, Munich, Germany.,German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Partner Site, Munich, Germany
| | - Tanja Bauer
- Institute of Virology, Helmholtz Zentrum München/Technical University of Munich, School of Medicine, Schneckenburgerstr. 8, 81675, Munich, Germany.,German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Partner Site, Munich, Germany
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38
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Serçinoğlu O, Ozbek P. Sequence-structure-function relationships in class I MHC: A local frustration perspective. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0232849. [PMID: 32421728 PMCID: PMC7233585 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0232849] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2019] [Accepted: 04/22/2020] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Class I Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) binds short antigenic peptides with the help of Peptide Loading Complex (PLC), and presents them to T-cell Receptors (TCRs) of cytotoxic T-cells and Killer-cell Immunglobulin-like Receptors (KIRs) of Natural Killer (NK) cells. With more than 10000 alleles, human MHC (Human Leukocyte Antigen, HLA) is the most polymorphic protein in humans. This allelic diversity provides a wide coverage of peptide sequence space, yet does not affect the three-dimensional structure of the complex. Moreover, TCRs mostly interact with HLA in a common diagonal binding mode, and KIR-HLA interaction is allele-dependent. With the aim of establishing a framework for understanding the relationships between polymorphism (sequence), structure (conserved fold) and function (protein interactions) of the human MHC, we performed here a local frustration analysis on pMHC homology models covering 1436 HLA I alleles. An analysis of local frustration profiles indicated that (1) variations in MHC fold are unlikely due to minimally-frustrated and relatively conserved residues within the HLA peptide-binding groove, (2) high frustration patches on HLA helices are either involved in or near interaction sites of MHC with the TCR, KIR, or tapasin of the PLC, and (3) peptide ligands mainly stabilize the F-pocket of HLA binding groove.
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Affiliation(s)
- Onur Serçinoğlu
- Department of Bioengineering, Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, Faculty of Engineering, Fener, Rize, Turkey
| | - Pemra Ozbek
- Department of Bioengineering, Marmara University, Faculty of Engineering, Goztepe, Istanbul, Turkey
- * E-mail:
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39
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Gil A, Kamga L, Chirravuri-Venkata R, Aslan N, Clark F, Ghersi D, Luzuriaga K, Selin LK. Epstein-Barr Virus Epitope-Major Histocompatibility Complex Interaction Combined with Convergent Recombination Drives Selection of Diverse T Cell Receptor α and β Repertoires. mBio 2020; 11:e00250-20. [PMID: 32184241 PMCID: PMC7078470 DOI: 10.1128/mbio.00250-20] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2020] [Accepted: 02/11/2020] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Recognition modes of individual T cell receptors (TCRs) are well studied, but factors driving the selection of TCR repertoires from primary through persistent human virus infections are less well understood. Using deep sequencing, we demonstrate a high degree of diversity of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-specific clonotypes in acute infectious mononucleosis (AIM). Only 9% of unique clonotypes detected in AIM persisted into convalescence; the majority (91%) of unique clonotypes detected in AIM were not detected in convalescence and were seeming replaced by equally diverse "de novo" clonotypes. The persistent clonotypes had a greater probability of being generated than nonpersistent clonotypes due to convergence recombination of multiple nucleotide sequences to encode the same amino acid sequence, as well as the use of shorter complementarity-determining regions 3 (CDR3s) with fewer nucleotide additions (i.e., sequences closer to germ line). Moreover, the two most immunodominant HLA-A2-restricted EBV epitopes, BRLF1109 and BMLF1280, show highly distinct antigen-specific public (i.e., shared between individuals) features. In fact, TCRα CDR3 motifs played a dominant role, while TCRβ played a minimal role, in the selection of TCR repertoire to an immunodominant EBV epitope, BRLF1. This contrasts with the majority of previously reported repertoires, which appear to be selected either on TCRβ CDR3 interactions with peptide/major histocompatibility complex (MHC) or in combination with TCRα CDR3. Understanding of how TCR-peptide-MHC complex interactions drive repertoire selection can be used to develop optimal strategies for vaccine design or generation of appropriate adoptive immunotherapies for viral infections in transplant settings or for cancer.IMPORTANCE Several lines of evidence suggest that TCRα and TCRβ repertoires play a role in disease outcomes and treatment strategies during viral infections in transplant patients and in cancer and autoimmune disease therapy. Our data suggest that it is essential that we understand the basic principles of how to drive optimum repertoires for both TCR chains, α and β. We address this important issue by characterizing the CD8 TCR repertoire to a common persistent human viral infection (EBV), which is controlled by appropriate CD8 T cell responses. The ultimate goal would be to determine if the individuals who are infected asymptomatically develop a different TCR repertoire than those that develop the immunopathology of AIM. Here, we begin by doing an in-depth characterization of both CD8 T cell TCRα and TCRβ repertoires to two immunodominant EBV epitopes over the course of AIM, identifying potential factors that may be driving their selection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Gil
- Department of Pathology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Larisa Kamga
- Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
| | | | - Nuray Aslan
- Department of Pathology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Fransenio Clark
- Department of Pathology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Dario Ghersi
- School of Interdisciplinary Informatics, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, Nebraska, USA
| | - Katherine Luzuriaga
- Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Liisa K Selin
- Department of Pathology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
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40
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Coles CH, Mulvaney RM, Malla S, Walker A, Smith KJ, Lloyd A, Lowe KL, McCully ML, Martinez Hague R, Aleksic M, Harper J, Paston SJ, Donnellan Z, Chester F, Wiederhold K, Robinson RA, Knox A, Stacey AR, Dukes J, Baston E, Griffin S, Jakobsen BK, Vuidepot A, Harper S. TCRs with Distinct Specificity Profiles Use Different Binding Modes to Engage an Identical Peptide-HLA Complex. THE JOURNAL OF IMMUNOLOGY 2020; 204:1943-1953. [PMID: 32102902 DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.1900915] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2019] [Accepted: 12/29/2019] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
The molecular rules driving TCR cross-reactivity are poorly understood and, consequently, it is unclear the extent to which TCRs targeting the same Ag recognize the same off-target peptides. We determined TCR-peptide-HLA crystal structures and, using a single-chain peptide-HLA phage library, we generated peptide specificity profiles for three newly identified human TCRs specific for the cancer testis Ag NY-ESO-1157-165-HLA-A2. Two TCRs engaged the same central peptide feature, although were more permissive at peripheral peptide positions and, accordingly, possessed partially overlapping peptide specificity profiles. The third TCR engaged a flipped peptide conformation, leading to the recognition of off-target peptides sharing little similarity with the cognate peptide. These data show that TCRs specific for a cognate peptide recognize discrete peptide repertoires and reconciles how an individual's limited TCR repertoire following negative selection in the thymus is able to recognize a vastly larger antigenic pool.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charlotte H Coles
- Immunocore, Ltd., Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4RY, United Kingdom; and
| | - Rachel M Mulvaney
- Immunocore, Ltd., Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4RY, United Kingdom; and
| | - Sunir Malla
- Immunocore, Ltd., Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4RY, United Kingdom; and
| | - Andrew Walker
- Immunocore, Ltd., Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4RY, United Kingdom; and
| | - Kathrine J Smith
- GlaxoSmithKline, Medicines Research Centre, Stevenage, Hertfordshire SG1 2NY, United Kingdom
| | - Angharad Lloyd
- Immunocore, Ltd., Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4RY, United Kingdom; and
| | - Kate L Lowe
- Immunocore, Ltd., Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4RY, United Kingdom; and
| | | | | | - Milos Aleksic
- Immunocore, Ltd., Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4RY, United Kingdom; and
| | - Jane Harper
- Immunocore, Ltd., Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4RY, United Kingdom; and
| | - Samantha J Paston
- Immunocore, Ltd., Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4RY, United Kingdom; and
| | - Zoe Donnellan
- Immunocore, Ltd., Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4RY, United Kingdom; and
| | - Fiona Chester
- Immunocore, Ltd., Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4RY, United Kingdom; and
| | - Katrin Wiederhold
- Immunocore, Ltd., Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4RY, United Kingdom; and
| | - Ross A Robinson
- Immunocore, Ltd., Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4RY, United Kingdom; and
| | - Andrew Knox
- Immunocore, Ltd., Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4RY, United Kingdom; and
| | - Andrea R Stacey
- Immunocore, Ltd., Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4RY, United Kingdom; and
| | - Joseph Dukes
- Immunocore, Ltd., Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4RY, United Kingdom; and
| | - Emma Baston
- Immunocore, Ltd., Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4RY, United Kingdom; and
| | - Sue Griffin
- GlaxoSmithKline, Medicines Research Centre, Stevenage, Hertfordshire SG1 2NY, United Kingdom
| | - Bent K Jakobsen
- Immunocore, Ltd., Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4RY, United Kingdom; and
| | - Annelise Vuidepot
- Immunocore, Ltd., Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4RY, United Kingdom; and
| | - Stephen Harper
- Immunocore, Ltd., Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4RY, United Kingdom; and
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41
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Vianna P, Mendes MF, Bragatte MA, Ferreira PS, Salzano FM, Bonamino MH, Vieira GF. pMHC Structural Comparisons as a Pivotal Element to Detect and Validate T-Cell Targets for Vaccine Development and Immunotherapy-A New Methodological Proposal. Cells 2019; 8:cells8121488. [PMID: 31766602 PMCID: PMC6952977 DOI: 10.3390/cells8121488] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2019] [Revised: 11/15/2019] [Accepted: 11/16/2019] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
The search for epitopes that will effectively trigger an immune response remains the “El Dorado” for immunologists. The development of promising immunotherapeutic approaches requires the appropriate targets to elicit a proper immune response. Considering the high degree of HLA/TCR diversity, as well as the heterogeneity of viral and tumor proteins, this number will invariably be higher than ideal to test. It is known that the recognition of a peptide-MHC (pMHC) by the T-cell receptor is performed entirely in a structural fashion, where the atomic interactions of both structures, pMHC and TCR, dictate the fate of the process. However, epitopes with a similar composition of amino acids can produce dissimilar surfaces. Conversely, sequences with no conspicuous similarities can exhibit similar TCR interaction surfaces. In the last decade, our group developed a database and in silico structural methods to extract molecular fingerprints that trigger T-cell immune responses, mainly referring to physicochemical similarities, which could explain the immunogenic differences presented by different pMHC-I complexes. Here, we propose an immunoinformatic approach that considers a structural level of information, combined with an experimental technology that simulates the presentation of epitopes for a T cell, to improve vaccine production and immunotherapy efficacy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Priscila Vianna
- Laboratory of Human Teratogenesis and Population Medical Genetics, Department of Genetics, Institute of Biosciences, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre 91.501-970, Brazil;
| | - Marcus F.A. Mendes
- Laboratory of Bioinformatics (NBLI), Department of Genetics, Institute of Biosciences, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre 91.501-970, Brazil (M.A.B.)
| | - Marcelo A. Bragatte
- Laboratory of Bioinformatics (NBLI), Department of Genetics, Institute of Biosciences, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre 91.501-970, Brazil (M.A.B.)
| | - Priscila S. Ferreira
- Program of Immunology and Tumor Biology, Division of Experimental and Translational Research, Brazilian National Cancer Institute, Rio de Janeiro 20231-050, Brazil; (P.S.F.); (M.H.B.)
| | - Francisco M. Salzano
- Laboratory of Molecular Evolution, Department of Genetics, Institute of Biosciences, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre 91.501-970, Brazil;
| | - Martin H. Bonamino
- Program of Immunology and Tumor Biology, Division of Experimental and Translational Research, Brazilian National Cancer Institute, Rio de Janeiro 20231-050, Brazil; (P.S.F.); (M.H.B.)
- Vice Presidency of Research and Biological Collections, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro 21040-900, Brazil
| | - Gustavo F. Vieira
- Laboratory of Bioinformatics (NBLI), Department of Genetics, Institute of Biosciences, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre 91.501-970, Brazil (M.A.B.)
- Laboratory of Health Bioinformatics, Post Graduate Program in Health and Human Development, La Salle University, Canoas 91.501-970, Brazil
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +55-51-3308-99-38; Fax: +55-51-3308-73-11
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42
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Jensen KK, Rantos V, Jappe EC, Olsen TH, Jespersen MC, Jurtz V, Jessen LE, Lanzarotti E, Mahajan S, Peters B, Nielsen M, Marcatili P. TCRpMHCmodels: Structural modelling of TCR-pMHC class I complexes. Sci Rep 2019; 9:14530. [PMID: 31601838 PMCID: PMC6787230 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-50932-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2019] [Accepted: 09/09/2019] [Indexed: 01/30/2023] Open
Abstract
The interaction between the class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC), the peptide presented by the MHC and the T-cell receptor (TCR) is a key determinant of the cellular immune response. Here, we present TCRpMHCmodels, a method for accurate structural modelling of the TCR-peptide-MHC (TCR-pMHC) complex. This TCR-pMHC modelling pipeline takes as input the amino acid sequence and generates models of the TCR-pMHC complex, with a median Cα RMSD of 2.31 Å. TCRpMHCmodels significantly outperforms TCRFlexDock, a specialised method for docking pMHC and TCR structures. TCRpMHCmodels is simple to use and the modelling pipeline takes, on average, only two minutes. Thanks to its ease of use and high modelling accuracy, we expect TCRpMHCmodels to provide insights into the underlying mechanisms of TCR and pMHC interactions and aid in the development of advanced T-cell-based immunotherapies and rational design of vaccines. The TCRpMHCmodels tool is available at http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/TCRpMHCmodels/.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Vasileios Rantos
- Department of Bio and Health Informatics, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark.,Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB), DESY and European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Notkestrasse 85, 22607, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Emma Christine Jappe
- Department of Bio and Health Informatics, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark.,Evaxion Biotech, Bredgade 34E, 1260, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Tobias Hegelund Olsen
- Department of Bio and Health Informatics, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | | | - Vanessa Jurtz
- Department of Bioinformatics and Data Mining, Novo Nordisk A/S, 2760, Måløv, Denmark
| | - Leon Eyrich Jessen
- Department of Bio and Health Informatics, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Esteban Lanzarotti
- Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas, Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Swapnil Mahajan
- Division of Vaccine Discovery, La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Bjoern Peters
- Division of Vaccine Discovery, La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.,University of California San Diego, Department of Medicine, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Morten Nielsen
- Department of Bio and Health Informatics, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark.,Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas, Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Paolo Marcatili
- Department of Bio and Health Informatics, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark.
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43
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Soon CF, Zhang S, Suneetha PV, Antunes DA, Manns MP, Raha S, Schultze-Florey C, Prinz I, Wedemeyer H, Sällberg Chen M, Cornberg M. Hepatitis E Virus (HEV)-Specific T Cell Receptor Cross-Recognition: Implications for Immunotherapy. Front Immunol 2019; 10:2076. [PMID: 31552033 PMCID: PMC6738269 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2019.02076] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2019] [Accepted: 08/16/2019] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
T cell immunotherapy is a concept developed for the treatment of cancer and infectious diseases, based on cytotoxic T lymphocytes to target tumor- or pathogen-specific antigens. Antigen-specificity of the T cell receptors (TCRs) is an important selection criterion in the developmental design of immunotherapy. However, off-target specificity is a possible autoimmunity concern if the engineered antigen-specific T cells are cross-reacting to self-peptides in-vivo. In our recent work, we identified several hepatitis E virus (HEV)-specific TCRs as potential candidates to be developed into T cell therapy to treat chronic hepatitis E. One of the identified TCRs, targeting a HLA-A2-restricted epitope at the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (HEV-1527: LLWNTVWNM), possessed a unique multiple glycine motif in the TCR-β CDR3, which might be a factor inducing cross-reactivity. The aim of our study was to explore if this TCR could cross-recognize self-peptides to underlay autoimmunity. Indeed, we found that this HEV-1527-specific TCR could also cross-recognize an apoptosis-related epitope, Nonmuscle Myosin Heavy Chain 9 (MYH9-478: QLFNHTMFI). While this TCR had dual specificities to both viral epitope and a self-antigen by double Dextramer binding, it was selectively functional against HEV-1527 but not activated against MYH9-478. The consecutive glycine motif in β chain may be the reason promoting TCR binding promiscuity to recognize a secondary target, thereby facilitating cross-recognition. In conclusion, candidate TCRs for immunotherapy development should be screened for autoimmune potential, especially when the TCRs exhibit unique sequence pattern.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chai Fen Soon
- Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany.,Cluster of Excellence RESIST (EXC 2155), Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany
| | - Shihong Zhang
- Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany
| | | | | | - Michael Peter Manns
- Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany.,Cluster of Excellence RESIST (EXC 2155), Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany
| | - Solaiman Raha
- Hannover Medical School, Institute of Immunology, Hanover, Germany
| | - Christian Schultze-Florey
- Hannover Medical School, Institute of Immunology, Hanover, Germany.,Department of Hematology, Hemostasis, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany
| | - Immo Prinz
- Cluster of Excellence RESIST (EXC 2155), Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany.,Hannover Medical School, Institute of Immunology, Hanover, Germany
| | - Heiner Wedemeyer
- Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany.,German Center for Infection Research, Partner Site Hannover-Braunschweig, Hanover, Germany.,Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Clinic Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Margaret Sällberg Chen
- Department of Dental Medicine and Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.,Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
| | - Markus Cornberg
- Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany.,Cluster of Excellence RESIST (EXC 2155), Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany.,German Center for Infection Research, Partner Site Hannover-Braunschweig, Hanover, Germany.,Centre for Individualised Infection Medicine, Hanover, Germany.,Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany
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44
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Abella JR, Antunes DA, Clementi C, Kavraki LE. APE-Gen: A Fast Method for Generating Ensembles of Bound Peptide-MHC Conformations. Molecules 2019; 24:E881. [PMID: 30832312 PMCID: PMC6429480 DOI: 10.3390/molecules24050881] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2019] [Revised: 02/26/2019] [Accepted: 02/27/2019] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The Class I Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) is a central protein in immunology as it binds to intracellular peptides and displays them at the cell surface for recognition by T-cells. The structural analysis of bound peptide-MHC complexes (pMHCs) holds the promise of interpretable and general binding prediction (i.e., testing whether a given peptide binds to a given MHC). However, structural analysis is limited in part by the difficulty in modelling pMHCs given the size and flexibility of the peptides that can be presented by MHCs. This article describes APE-Gen (Anchored Peptide-MHC Ensemble Generator), a fast method for generating ensembles of bound pMHC conformations. APE-Gen generates an ensemble of bound conformations by iterated rounds of (i) anchoring the ends of a given peptide near known pockets in the binding site of the MHC, (ii) sampling peptide backbone conformations with loop modelling, and then (iii) performing energy minimization to fix steric clashes, accumulating conformations at each round. APE-Gen takes only minutes on a standard desktop to generate tens of bound conformations, and we show the ability of APE-Gen to sample conformations found in X-ray crystallography even when only sequence information is used as input. APE-Gen has the potential to be useful for its scalability (i.e., modelling thousands of pMHCs or even non-canonical longer peptides) and for its use as a flexible search tool. We demonstrate an example for studying cross-reactivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jayvee R Abella
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA.
| | - Dinler A Antunes
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA.
| | - Cecilia Clementi
- Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA.
- Department of Chemistry, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA.
| | - Lydia E Kavraki
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA.
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45
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Hellman LM, Foley KC, Singh NK, Alonso JA, Riley TP, Devlin JR, Ayres CM, Keller GLJ, Zhang Y, Vander Kooi CW, Nishimura MI, Baker BM. Improving T Cell Receptor On-Target Specificity via Structure-Guided Design. Mol Ther 2018; 27:300-313. [PMID: 30617019 DOI: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2018.12.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2018] [Revised: 12/05/2018] [Accepted: 12/08/2018] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
T cell receptors (TCRs) have emerged as a new class of immunological therapeutics. However, though antigen specificity is a hallmark of adaptive immunity, TCRs themselves do not possess the high specificity of monoclonal antibodies. Although a necessary function of T cell biology, the resulting cross-reactivity presents a significant challenge for TCR-based therapeutic development, as it creates the potential for off-target recognition and immune toxicity. Efforts to enhance TCR specificity by mimicking the antibody maturation process and enhancing affinity can inadvertently exacerbate TCR cross-reactivity. Here we demonstrate this concern by showing that even peptide-targeted mutations in the TCR can introduce new reactivities against peptides that bear similarity to the original target. To counteract this, we explored a novel structure-guided approach for enhancing TCR specificity independent of affinity. Tested with the MART-1-specific TCR DMF5, our approach had a small but discernible impact on cross-reactivity toward MART-1 homologs yet was able to eliminate DMF5 cross-recognition of more divergent, unrelated epitopes. Our study provides a proof of principle for the use of advanced structure-guided design techniques for improving TCR specificity, and it suggests new ways forward for enhancing TCRs for therapeutic use.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lance M Hellman
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Harper Cancer Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA
| | - Kendra C Foley
- Department of Surgery and the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, Loyola University of Chicago, Maywood, IL, USA
| | - Nishant K Singh
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Harper Cancer Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA
| | - Jesus A Alonso
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Harper Cancer Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA
| | - Timothy P Riley
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Harper Cancer Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA
| | - Jason R Devlin
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Harper Cancer Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA
| | - Cory M Ayres
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Harper Cancer Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA
| | - Grant L J Keller
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Harper Cancer Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA
| | - Yuting Zhang
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Harper Cancer Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA
| | - Craig W Vander Kooi
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA
| | - Michael I Nishimura
- Department of Surgery and the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, Loyola University of Chicago, Maywood, IL, USA
| | - Brian M Baker
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Harper Cancer Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA.
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46
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Hammerl D, Rieder D, Martens JWM, Trajanoski Z, Debets R. Adoptive T Cell Therapy: New Avenues Leading to Safe Targets and Powerful Allies. Trends Immunol 2018; 39:921-936. [PMID: 30309702 DOI: 10.1016/j.it.2018.09.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2018] [Revised: 09/12/2018] [Accepted: 09/12/2018] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Adoptive transfer of TCR-engineered T cells is a potent therapy, able to induce clinical responses in different human malignancies. Nevertheless, treatment toxicities may occur and, in particular for solid tumors, responses may be variable and often not durable. To address these challenges, it is imperative to carefully select target antigens and to immunologically interrogate the corresponding tumors when designing optimal T cell therapies. Here, we review recent advances, covering both omics- and laboratory tools that can enable the selection of optimal T cell epitopes and TCRs as well as the identification of dominant immune evasive mechanisms within tumor tissues. Furthermore, we discuss how these techniques may aid in a rational design of effective combinatorial adoptive T cell therapies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dora Hammerl
- Laboratory of Tumor Immunology, Erasmus MC-Cancer Institute, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Dietmar Rieder
- Division of Bioinformatics, Biocenter, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - John W M Martens
- Department of Medical Oncology, Erasmus MC-Cancer Institute, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Zlatko Trajanoski
- Division of Bioinformatics, Biocenter, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Reno Debets
- Laboratory of Tumor Immunology, Erasmus MC-Cancer Institute, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
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47
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Antunes DA, Devaurs D, Moll M, Lizée G, Kavraki LE. General Prediction of Peptide-MHC Binding Modes Using Incremental Docking: A Proof of Concept. Sci Rep 2018. [PMID: 29531253 PMCID: PMC5847594 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-22173-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is capable of binding peptides derived from intracellular proteins and displaying them at the cell surface. The recognition of these peptide-MHC (pMHC) complexes by T-cells is the cornerstone of cellular immunity, enabling the elimination of infected or tumoral cells. T-cell-based immunotherapies against cancer, which leverage this mechanism, can greatly benefit from structural analyses of pMHC complexes. Several attempts have been made to use molecular docking for such analyses, but pMHC structure remains too challenging for even state-of-the-art docking tools. To overcome these limitations, we describe the use of an incremental meta-docking approach for structural prediction of pMHC complexes. Previous methods applied in this context used specific constraints to reduce the complexity of this prediction problem, at the expense of generality. Our strategy makes no assumption and can potentially be used to predict binding modes for any pMHC complex. Our method has been tested in a re-docking experiment, reproducing the binding modes of 25 pMHC complexes whose crystal structures are available. This study is a proof of concept that incremental docking strategies can lead to general geometry prediction of pMHC complexes, with potential applications for immunotherapy against cancer or infectious diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dinler A Antunes
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX, 77005, USA
| | - Didier Devaurs
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX, 77005, USA
| | - Mark Moll
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX, 77005, USA
| | - Gregory Lizée
- Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology - Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 77054, USA
| | - Lydia E Kavraki
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX, 77005, USA.
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48
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Antunes DA, Abella JR, Devaurs D, Rigo MM, Kavraki LE. Structure-based Methods for Binding Mode and Binding Affinity Prediction for Peptide-MHC Complexes. Curr Top Med Chem 2018; 18:2239-2255. [PMID: 30582480 PMCID: PMC6361695 DOI: 10.2174/1568026619666181224101744] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2018] [Revised: 11/29/2018] [Accepted: 12/08/2018] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
Understanding the mechanisms involved in the activation of an immune response is essential to many fields in human health, including vaccine development and personalized cancer immunotherapy. A central step in the activation of the adaptive immune response is the recognition, by T-cell lymphocytes, of peptides displayed by a special type of receptor known as Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC). Considering the key role of MHC receptors in T-cell activation, the computational prediction of peptide binding to MHC has been an important goal for many immunological applications. Sequence- based methods have become the gold standard for peptide-MHC binding affinity prediction, but structure-based methods are expected to provide more general predictions (i.e., predictions applicable to all types of MHC receptors). In addition, structural modeling of peptide-MHC complexes has the potential to uncover yet unknown drivers of T-cell activation, thus allowing for the development of better and safer therapies. In this review, we discuss the use of computational methods for the structural modeling of peptide-MHC complexes (i.e., binding mode prediction) and for the structure-based prediction of binding affinity.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jayvee R. Abella
- Computer Science Department, Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Didier Devaurs
- Computer Science Department, Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Maurício M. Rigo
- School of Medicine, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
| | - Lydia E. Kavraki
- Computer Science Department, Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA
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