Staphylococcus aureus superantigens elicit redundant and extensive human Vbeta patterns.
Staphylococcus aureus can produce a wide variety of exotoxins, including toxic shock syndrome toxin 1 (TSST-1), staphylococcal enterotoxins, and staphylococcal enterotoxin-like toxins. These toxins share superantigenic activity. To investigate the beta chain (Vbeta) specificities of each of these toxins, TSST-1 and all known S. aureus enterotoxins and enterotoxin-like toxins were produced as recombinant proteins and tested for their ability to induce the selective in vitro expansion of human T cells bearing particular Vbeta T-cell receptors (TCR). Although redundancies were observed between the toxins and the Vbeta populations, each toxin induced the expansion of distinct Vbeta subsets, including enterotoxin H and enterotoxin-like toxin J. Surprisingly, the Vbeta signatures were not associated with a specific phylogenic group of toxins. Interestingly, each human Vbeta analyzed in this study was stimulated by at least one staphylococcal superantigen, suggesting that the bacterium derives a selective advantage from targeting the entire human TCR Vbeta panel.
Thomas
Damien
D
Université Lyon 1, Centre National de Référence des Staphylocoques, INSERM U851, IFR128 Laennec, 7 Rue Guillaume Paradin, 69372 Lyon Cedex 08, France. gerard.lina@chu-lyon.fr
Dauwalder
Olivier
O
Brun
Virginie
V
Badiou
Cedric
C
Ferry
Tristan
T
Etienne
Jerome
J
Vandenesch
François
F
Lina
Gerard
G
D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta / Q000032:analysis*; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000276:immunology*; D018089:Superantigens / Q000276:immunology*; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*
D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta; D018089:Superantigens