Nonmyeloablative conditioning allows for more rapid T-cell repertoire reconstitution following allogeneic matched unrelated bone marrow transplantation compared to myeloablative approaches

Nonmyeloablative pretransplantation conditioning regimens have resulted in durable engraftment of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cells. In contrast to conventional fully myeloablative approaches, nonmyeloablative regimens are associated with a marked reduction of morbidity and mortality in the early posttransplantation period. Consequently, such reduced-intensity transplantation approaches can be used in older and frailer patients who would not tolerate fully ablative regimens. However, it is currently unclear how this radically different transplantation strategy affects immunological reconstitution. To address this important issue, we used T-cell receptor Vbeta spectratype analysis to examine the distribution of complementarity-determining region 3 (CDR3)-size bands as a measure of the complexity of the redeveloping T-cell repertoire. For this study, we evaluated the T-cell repertoire of 9 patients receiving T-cell replete, matched unrelated donor transplants following fully ablative or nonmyeloablative conditioning regimens. All 4 of the myeloablative and 2 of the nonmyeloablative patients received bone marrow, whereas 3 other nonmyeloablative patients received peripheral blood stem cells. The results of the spectratype analysis demonstrated that the patients who received nonmyeloablative conditioning together with either bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells exhibited more rapid reconstitution of T-cell repertoire complexity.

Vbeta spectratype analysis reveals heterogeneity of CD4+ T-cell responses to minor histocompatibility antigens involved in graft-versus-host disease: correlations with epithelial tissue infiltrate

Lethal graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) can be induced after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation between major histocompatibility complex-matched murine strains expressing multiple minor histocompatibility antigen (miHA) differences. In the C57BL/6By (B6)-->C.B10-H2b/LiMcdJ (BALB.B) irradiation model, both CD4+ and CD8+ donor T cells can mediate lethal GVHD, whereas in the B6-->CXB-2/By (CXBE) model, in which the recipient expresses a subset of BALB.B miHA, only the CD8+ T cells are lethal. Phenotypic analysis of CD4+ T cells collected from the thoracic duct lymphocyte pool of recipient mice had indicated expansion of the donor T-cell receptor Vbeta6-9 families in BALB.B recipients, and only Vbeta7 and Vbeta9 populations in CXBE mice. CDR3-size spectratyping, used to further analyze these responses, revealed overlapping oligoclonal expansion of Vbeta4, Vbeta6-10, and Vbeta12-14 families in both BALB.B and CXBE recipients injected with host-presensitized B6 T cells. In addition, the B6-->BALB.B CD4+ T-cell response appeared to involve the recognition of unique BALB.B-specific miHA, indicated by additional skewing of Vbeta2 and Vbeta11 families. On the other hand, the B6-->CXBE strain combination exhibited unique skewing of the Vbeta16 and Vbeta18 families. Immunohistochemical staining of lingual epithelial sections from BALB.B recipients of naive B6 CD4+ T cells correlated with the involvement of several of the spectratype-skewed Vbeta families in GVHD lesions. Furthermore, magnetic cell separation techniques were used to positively select the spectratype-skewed Vbeta families from the donor B6 CD4+ T cells; the former were found to have significant GVHD potential upon transplantation into lethally irradiated BALB.B recipients. In contrast, mice that received transplants from the unskewed Vbeta families all survived with minimal symptoms of GVHD. Taken together, these results demonstrate that the expansion of particular Vbeta families, as identified by spectratype analysis, correlates with the induction and pathogenesis of lethal GVHD.

Repertoire analysis of CD8+ T cell responses to minor histocompatibility antigens involved in graft-versus-host disease

Graft-vs-host disease (GVHD) is a major complication of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. Experimentally, lethal GVHD can be induced in MHC-matched strain combinations differing in expression of multiple minor histocompatibility Ags (miHA). Recently, the GVHD potential of C57BL/6By (B6) T cells in irradiated BALB.B (both H2b) and related CXB recombinant inbred strains of mice has been studied to determine the scope of the response to miHA in vivo and how it compared with CTL responses to immunodominant miHA in vitro. The GVHD response in these strain combinations appeared to be limited to a few Ags, yet there was no correlation of these miHA with that of in vitro CTL responses. To further investigate the role of CD8+ T cells in GVHD, we analyzed positively selected miHA-specific donor CD8+ thoracic duct lymphocytes (TDL) collected from irradiated BALB.B and CXBE mice, 5 to 6 days after transplantation of B6 T cells. Flow cytometric analysis of B6-->BALB.B TDL did not indicate expansion of any particular TCR Vbeta family, whereas Vbeta10 and Vbeta14 families were significantly expanded in the B6-->CXBE TDL. However, PCR-based complementarity-determining region 3 size spectratyping revealed overlapping involvement of donor Vbeta1, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 14 families in both BALB.B and CXBE recipients and unique utilization of the Vbeta4 family in BALB.B mice, suggesting oligoclonal T cell responses to a limited number of miHA. In addition, the injection of CD8+ Vbeta14+ B6 T cells into irradiated BALB.B and CXBE mice induced lethal GVHD, confirming the involvement of miHA-specific T cells within an individual Vbeta family.

Bioactive peptide design based on protein surface epitopes. A cyclic heptapeptide mimics CD4 domain 1 CC' loop and inhibits CD4 biological function

The interaction between CD4 and major histocompatibility complex class II proteins provides a critical co-receptor function for the activation of CD4(+) T cells implicated in the pathogenesis of a number of autoimmune diseases and transplantation responses. A small synthetic cyclic heptapeptide was designed and shown by high resolution NMR spectroscopy to closely mimic the CD4 domain 1 CC' surface loop. This peptide effectively blocked stable CD4-major histocompatibility complex class II interaction, possessed significant immunosuppressive activity in vitro and in vivo, and strongly resisted proteolytic degradation. These results demonstrate the therapeutic potential of this peptide as a novel immunosuppressive agent and suggest a general strategy of drug design by using small conformationally constrained peptide mimics of protein surface epitopes to inhibit protein interactions and biological functions.

A computer screening approach to immunoglobulin superfamily structures and interactions: discovery of small non-peptidic CD4 inhibitors as novel immunotherapeutics

The interaction between CD4 and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II proteins is critical for the activation of CD4+ T cells, which are involved in transplantation reactions and a number of autoimmune diseases. In this study we have identified a CD4 surface pocket as a functional epitope implicated in CD4-MHC class II interaction and T-cell activation. A computer-based strategy has been used to screen approximately 150,000 non-peptidic organic compounds in a molecular data base and to identify a group of compounds as ligands of the proposed CD4 surface pocket. These small organic compounds have been shown to specifically block stable CD4-MHC class II binding, and exhibit significant inhibition of immune responses in animal models of autoimmune disease and allograft transplant rejection, suggesting their potential as novel immunosuppressants. This structure-based computer screening approach may have general implications for studying many immunoglobulin-like structures and interactions that share similar structural features. Furthermore, the results from this study have demonstrated that the rational design of small non-peptidic inhibitors of large protein-protein interfaces may indeed be an achievable goal.

Identification of a human CD4-CDR3-like surface involved in CD4+ T cell function

The CD4 molecule is expressed on the surface of helper T cells. This molecule contains four tandem external immunoglobulin-like domains (D1-D4), a transmembrane domain, and a cytoplasmic tail. Through the use of molecular modeling techniques, peptide analogs of the CDR3-like region of the human CD4 molecule, analog hPGP, a cyclized peptide 13 amino acids long, was synthesized and tested for its ability to inhibit proliferation in human mixed lymphocyte reactions. A conservative amino acid substitution was made at position 5 (D --> N) to increase its activity and designated hPGP(N). A series of alanine substitution peptides were synthesized based on the sequence of hPGP(N) to determine the importance of each residue to the peptide's function. The substitutions of amino acids in positions 3, 7, and 8 had essentially no effect on the inhibitory activity of hPGP(N), while substitutions of amino acids in positions 4 and 6 increased its inhibitory effect. Alanine substitutions of amino acids in positions 2, 5, and 9 dramatically decreased the inhibitory effect of analog hPGP(N). Molecular modeling of the native CD4-CDR3-like domain suggested that the residues corresponding to positions 2, 5, and 9 of the peptide formed a contiguous surface representing the active site.

Synthetic peptides derived from the fourth domain of CD4 antagonize off function and inhibit T cell activation

We have developed synthetic peptide analogs to analyze novel surface structures of the human CD4 protein potentially involved in T cell activation. Linear and cyclic peptides derived from the FG and CC' loops of the membrane proximal fourth domain of CD4 displayed inhibitory activities in a CD4-dependent immunological assay. These results suggest that the fourth domain of CD4 plays an important role in T cell activation. In addition, we report the synthesis of a highly stable CD4 peptide analog cyclized by the formation of an amide bond between amino and carboxyl termini. Serum stability studies showed that this main-chain cyclic CD4 peptide was highly resistant to proteolytic degradation while the linear and disulfide cyclic peptides were much less stable. The strategy of main chain cyclization of CD4 peptides may represent a promising approach to generate proteolytically stable, orally active immunoregulatory agents.

Two functional estrogen response elements are located upstream of the major chicken vitellogenin gene

We used a transient-expression assay to identify two estrogen response elements (EREs) associated with the major chicken vitellogenin gene (VTGII). Each element was characterized by its ability to confer estrogen responsiveness when cloned in either orientation next to a chimeric reporter gene consisting of the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase promoter and the chloramphenicol acetyl transferase-coding region. Deletion analyses indicated that sequences necessary for the distal ERE resided within the region from -626 to -613 (nucleotide positions relative to the VTGII start site) whereas those necessary for the proximal ERE were within the region from -358 to -335. These distal and proximal elements contain, respectively, a perfect copy and an imperfect copy of the 13-base-pair sequence that is an essential feature of the EREs associated with two frog vitellogenin genes. These chicken VTGII EREs mapped near regions that were restructured at the chromatin level when the endogenous VTGII gene was expressed in the liver in response to estradiol. These data suggest a model for the tissue-specific expression of this estrogen-responsive gene.

Taxol induces microtubule-rough endoplasmic reticulum complexes and microtubule-bundles in cultured chondroblasts

Taxol induces a vast increase in the number of microtubules (MTs) in functional chondroblasts. The drug also induces a marked change in MT distribution. In control cultures, anti-tubulin stains long, fine, sinuous filaments radiating from a perinuclear center. In taxol-treated cells, anti-tubulin stains stubby, straight, chevron-like structures that assume a striking antipodal distribution. Such MT-bundles are relatively stable: they persist for over 48 h after removal of taxol, and even for 16-24 h in Colcemid. Many of these supernumerary MTs bind to, and align on, the cytoplasmic face of the rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER). In binding, the MTs displace the numerous ribosomes that normally stud the surface of the cisternae of the RER. The bound MTs form a remarkably uniform layer with center-to-center spacings of 40 nm. The attached parallel arrays of MTs achieve lengths of over 10 microns. These bound MTs not only dislodge ribosomes from the RER surface, but they also zip together adjacent ER complexes, forming tiers of two to eight cisternae. Numerous cytoplasmic bundles of hexagonally-ordered MTs are also induced. When closely aligned, the MTs assume a crystalline configuration with a six-fold symmetry, a central MT being surrounded by six equidistant MTs. A single cell can have over 100 MT-bundles and the number of MTs per bundles varies from 2-30. The forces aggregating cytoplasmic MT-bundles probably differ from those that bind MTs to the RER. Taxol also fragments the prominent Golgi complex that characterizes actively secreting chondroblasts. No obvious morphologic relationship has yet been detected between these induced MTs and other organelles such as intermediate-sized filaments, microfilaments, mitochondria, Golgi cisternae, or secretory vesicles.

Taxol induces postmitotic myoblasts to assemble interdigitating microtubule-myosin arrays that exclude actin filaments

Taxol has the following effects on myogenic cultures: (a) it blocks cell replication of presumptive myoblasts and fibroblasts. (b) It induces the aggregation of microtubules into sheets or massive cables in presumptive myoblasts and fibroblasts, but not in postmitotic, mononucleated myoblasts. (c) It induces normally elongated postmitotic myoblasts to form stubby, star-shaped cells. (d) It reversibly blocks the fusion of the star-shaped myoblasts into multinucleated myotubes. (e) It augments the number of microtubules in postmitotic myoblasts, and these are assembled into interdigitating arrays of microtubules and myosin filaments. (f) Actin filaments are largely excluded from these interdigitating microtubule-myosin complexes. (g) The myosin filaments in the interdigitating microtubule-myosin arrays are aligned laterally, forming A-bands approximately 1.5 micrometers long.