title: Generation of CMV-specific T lymphocytes using protein-spanning pools of pp65-derived overlapping pentadecapeptides for adoptive immunotherapy.
abstract: Cell-mediated immunity is essential for control of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection. We used a pool of 138 synthetic overlapping pentadecapeptides overspanning the entire pp65 protein to generate polyclonal CMV-specific T-cell lines from 12 CMV-seropositive donors inheriting different HLA genotypes. Autologous monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DCs) pulsed with this complete pool consistently induced highly specific T cells that selectively recognized 1-3 pentadecapeptides identified by secondary responses to a mapping grid of pentadecapeptide subpools with single overlaps. Responses against peptide-loaded targets sharing single HLA class I or II alleles identified the restricting HLA alleles. HLA-A*0201+ donors consistently responded to pentadecapeptides containing HLA-A*0201-binding epitope(aa495-503)NLVPMVATV. T-cell lines from other donors contained high frequencies of CD4 and/or CD8 T cells selectively reactive against peptides presented by other HLA alleles, including both known epitopes such as (aa341-350)QYDPVAALF (HLA-A*2402) as well as unreported epitopes such as (aa267-275)HERNGFTVL (HLA-B*4001 and B*4002) and (aa513-523)FFWDANDIYRI (HLA-DRB1*1301). These T cells consistently lysed CMV-infected target cells. Thus, this approach fosters expansion and selection of HLA-restricted CMV-pp65-reactive T-cell lines of high specificity that also lyse CMV-infected targets, and from a functional and regulatory perspective, may have advantages for generating virus-specific T cells for adoptive immunotherapy.
authors.affiliation: Allogenic Bone Marrow Transplantation Service, Department of Pediatrics, Transplantation Biology Laboratory, Sloan-Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Deepa
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Trivedi
authors.forename: Roxanne Y
authors.initials: RY
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: O'Reilly
authors.forename: Guenther
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Koehne
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology*; D002460:Cell Line; D003586:Cytomegalovirus Infections / Q000276:immunology* / Q000628:therapy; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte / Q000276:immunology; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000166:cytology; D005838:Genotype; D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D016219:Immunotherapy, Adoptive / Q000379:methods*; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010750:Phosphoproteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D014763:Viral Matrix Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte; D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II; D010750:Phosphoproteins; D014763:Viral Matrix Proteins; C065418:cytomegalovirus matrix protein 65kDa