scholarly journals Analysis of T-Cell Receptor Repertoire in Transplantation: Fingerprint of T Cell-mediated Alloresponse

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guangyao Tian ◽  
Mingqian Li ◽  
Guoyue Lv

T cells play a key role in determining allograft function by mediating allogeneic immune responses to cause rejection, and recent work pointed their role in mediating tolerance in transplantation. The unique T-cell receptor (TCR) expressed on the surface of each T cell determines the antigen specificity of the cell and can be the specific fingerprint for identifying and monitoring. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) techniques provide powerful tools for deep and high-throughput TCR profiling, and facilitate to depict the entire T cell repertoire profile and trace antigen-specific T cells in circulation and local tissues. Tailing T cell transcriptomes and TCR sequences at the single cell level provides a full landscape of alloreactive T-cell clones development and biofunction in alloresponse. Here, we review the recent advances in TCR sequencing techniques and computational tools, as well as the recent discovery in overall TCR profile and antigen-specific T cells tracking in transplantation. We further discuss the challenges and potential of using TCR sequencing-based assays to profile alloreactive TCR repertoire as the fingerprint for immune monitoring and prediction of rejection and tolerance.

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (332) ◽  
pp. 332ra46-332ra46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qian Qi ◽  
Mary M. Cavanagh ◽  
Sabine Le Saux ◽  
Hong NamKoong ◽  
Chulwoo Kim ◽  
...  

Diversity and size of the antigen-specific T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire are two critical determinants for successful control of chronic infection. Varicella zoster virus (VZV) that establishes latency during childhood can escape control mechanisms, in particular with increasing age. We examined the TCR diversity of VZV-reactive CD4 T cells in individuals older than 50 years by studying three identical twin pairs and three unrelated individuals before and after vaccination with live attenuated VZV. Although all individuals had a small number of dominant T cell clones, the breadth of the VZV-specific repertoire differed markedly. A genetic influence was seen for the sharing of individual TCR sequences from antigen-reactive cells but not for repertoire richness or the selection of dominant clones. VZV vaccination favored the expansion of infrequent VZV antigen–reactive TCRs, including those from naïve T cells with lesser boosting of dominant T cell clones. Thus, vaccination does not reinforce the in vivo selection that occurred during chronic infection but leads to a diversification of the VZV-reactive T cell repertoire. However, a single-booster immunization seems insufficient to establish new clonal dominance. Our results suggest that repertoire analysis of antigen-specific TCRs can be an important readout to assess whether a vaccination was able to generate memory cells in clonal sizes that are necessary for immune protection.


Blood ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 112 (11) ◽  
pp. 823-823
Author(s):  
Marleen M Van Loenen ◽  
Renate de Boer ◽  
Gerdien L Volbeda ◽  
Avital L Amir ◽  
Renate S. Hagedoorn ◽  
...  

Abstract T cell receptor transfer to engineer tumor specific T cells is being explored as a strategy for adoptive immunotherapy. By retroviral introduction of T cell receptors (TCRs), large numbers of T cells with defined antigen specificity can be obtained. The in vivo efficacy of adoptively transferred TCR engineered T cells has been demonstrated in mouse studies and recently the first clinical trial with TCR engineered T cells was performed in melanoma patients. However, a potential drawback of TCR gene transfer is the formation of mixed TCR dimers. Chains of the introduced TCR can pair with the endogenous TCR chains, resulting in unknown specificities, and potentially in harmful reactivity against patient HLA molecules. We investigated whether TCR gene transfer leads to the generation of new detrimental reactivities by creating T cells that expressed mixed TCR dimers. To be able to discriminate between the antigen specificity of the mixed TCR dimers and the introduced as well as the endogenous TCR, we transduced mono-specific T cells with seven different antigen specific TCRs. As mono-specific T cells we used CMV-pp50 specific HLA-A1 restricted T cells. The transduced T cells were analyzed for newly acquired specificities against a large HLA-typed EBV-LCL panel covering almost all HLA class I and II molecules. We transduced several polyclonal virus specific T cell populations with the seven different antigen specific TCRs, and showed that in all T cell populations at least one of the seven TCR-transduced populations acquired new alloreactivities. Furthermore, by randomly combining TCR alpha and beta chains derived from different T cell clones we created 60 mixed TCR dimers of which 17 acquired alloreactivity. These results indicate that recombination of the introduced TCR chains with the endogenous TCR chains frequently gives rise to new allospecificities. To ascertain that the newly acquired alloreactivities were exerted by mixed TCR dimers, we introduced only TCR alpha or beta chains into CMV-pp50 specific monoclonal T cells, and demonstrated for example, that the introduction of a CMV pp65 specific TCR alpha chain led to a newly acquired reactivity that was HLA B58 restricted. The introduction of only the beta chain of a minor histocompatibility antigen (mHag) HA-1 specific TCR led to a newly acquired HLA B52 specific reactivity. Furthermore, we analyzed whether mixed TCR dimers consisting of conserved TCRs with the same specificity could acquire new harmful reactivity. We recombined mHag HA-2 specific TCR alpha and beta chains from 4 different T cell clones. Of the 12 mixed TCR dimers, a combination of the mHag HA-2 specific TCR alpha chain derived from the HA2.6 T cell clone with the mHag HA-2 specific beta chain of clone HA2.19 resulted in alloreactivity that was HLA DQ3 restricted. These results indicate that each recombination of TCR chains after TCR gene transfer can potentially result in a harmful new reactivity. In conclusion, mixed TCR dimers due to pairing of endogenous TCR chains with introduced TCR chains acquire potentially dangerous reactivities, both class I and class II restricted. To limit the chance of generating self- or alloreactive T cells, TCRs may be constructed allowing selective pairing of the TCR alpha chain with the corresponding TCR beta chain. Alternatively, we propose to use virus specific T cells as host cells for TCR gene transfer. Since they consist of a restricted TCR repertoire, the number of different chimeric TCRs formed will be limited. By introducing into these T cells as controls only the alpha or beta chain of the TCR of interest, the reactivity of these T cells and harmful reactivities of the mixed TCR dimers can be tested against different patient derived cell types.


1996 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 110-114
Author(s):  
Kenneth Croitoru ◽  
David KH Wong ◽  
Maria E Baca-Estrada

The diversity of the T cell receptor repertoire is generated through rearrangement of the variable, junctional and constant region genes. Selection processes in the thymus and periphery serve to eliminate self-reacting T cells, thereby preventing autoimmune disease. The possibility that inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an autoimmune disease has led to the search for an auto-antigen. In addition, studies are exploring the T cell receptor repertoire in IBD patients for changes that may provide clues regarding etiopathogenesis. Using monoclonal antibodies to T cell receptor variable-gene products or polymerase chain reaction analysis of variable-gene mRNA expression, the mucosal T cell repertoire has been examined in humans. The intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes show a significant degree of oligoclonal expansion that may represent local antigen exposure or unique selection processes. This is in keeping with studies that show that murine intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes undergo positive and possibly negative selection independent of the thymus. In the inflamed human gut, shifts in the T cell receptor repertoire may also reflect recruitment of peripheral T cells to the gut. In one study, a subset of Crohn’s disease patients was shown to have an increase in the proportion of variable β8 peripheral blood lymphocyte and mesenteric lymph node cells, suggesting a superantigen effect. The authors hypothesized that changes in the functional T cell receptor repertoire can also occur which might be independent of changes in the distribution of T cells expressing variable β T cell receptors. In fact, the authors have shown there is a selective decrease in the cytotoxic function of peripheral variable β8 T cells in Crohn’s disease. Furthermore, stimulation with the variable β8 selective bacterial enterotoxin staphylococcal enterotoxin E failed to increase the cytotoxic function in this subset of Crohn’s disease patients compared with controls. This suggests that in Crohn’s disease, variable β8 T cells have undergone an alteration in function that may reflect previous exposure to a superantigen-like stimulus. The relationship to the etiology and pathogenesis of IBD remains to be defined.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (490) ◽  
pp. eaao5563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luisa Klotz ◽  
Melanie Eschborn ◽  
Maren Lindner ◽  
Marie Liebmann ◽  
Martin Herold ◽  
...  

Interference with immune cell proliferation represents a successful treatment strategy in T cell–mediated autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis (MS). One prominent example is pharmacological inhibition of dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH), which mediates de novo pyrimidine synthesis in actively proliferating T and B lymphocytes. Within the TERIDYNAMIC clinical study, we observed that the DHODH inhibitor teriflunomide caused selective changes in T cell subset composition and T cell receptor repertoire diversity in patients with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS). In a preclinical antigen-specific setup, DHODH inhibition preferentially suppressed the proliferation of high-affinity T cells. Mechanistically, DHODH inhibition interferes with oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) and aerobic glycolysis in activated T cells via functional inhibition of complex III of the respiratory chain. The affinity-dependent effects of DHODH inhibition were closely linked to differences in T cell metabolism. High-affinity T cells preferentially use OXPHOS during early activation, which explains their increased susceptibility toward DHODH inhibition. In a mouse model of MS, DHODH inhibitory treatment resulted in preferential inhibition of high-affinity autoreactive T cell clones. Compared to T cells from healthy controls, T cells from patients with RRMS exhibited increased OXPHOS and glycolysis, which were reduced with teriflunomide treatment. Together, these data point to a mechanism of action where DHODH inhibition corrects metabolic disturbances in T cells, which primarily affects profoundly metabolically active high-affinity T cell clones. Hence, DHODH inhibition may promote recovery of an altered T cell receptor repertoire in autoimmunity.


1989 ◽  
Vol 169 (5) ◽  
pp. 1619-1630 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Marusić-Galesić ◽  
D L Longo ◽  
A M Kruisbeek

T cells recognize foreign antigens together with those MHC glycoproteins they have encountered during their development in the thymus. How the repertoire of antigen-specific TCRs is selected has not yet been fully defined. We have investigated the T cell repertoire specificities of CD4-CD8+ cytotoxic T cells developing under conditions where one of the class I MHC-encoded molecules is blocked, while other class I-MHC glycoproteins are still expressed. We show that antigen-specific T cells restricted to the blocked class I fail to develop, while generation of other class I-specific T cell proceeds undisturbed. This highly selective perturbation of the T cell receptor repertoire demonstrates that development of CD4-CD8+ T cells with a certain TCR specificity requires expression of particular alleles of class I MHC. Thus, TCR-MHC interactions provide signals essential to the differentiation of precursor T cells.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (20) ◽  
pp. eabf5835
Author(s):  
Wen Zhang ◽  
Peter G. Hawkins ◽  
Jing He ◽  
Namita T. Gupta ◽  
Jinrui Liu ◽  
...  

T cell receptor (TCR) antigen–specific recognition is essential for the adaptive immune system. However, building a TCR-antigen interaction map has been challenging due to the staggering diversity of TCRs and antigens. Accordingly, highly multiplexed dextramer-TCR binding assays have been recently developed, but the utility of the ensuing large datasets is limited by the lack of robust computational methods for normalization and interpretation. Here, we present a computational framework comprising a novel method, ICON (Integrative COntext-specific Normalization), for identifying reliable TCR-pMHC (peptide–major histocompatibility complex) interactions and a neural network–based classifier TCRAI that outperforms other state-of-the-art methods for TCR-antigen specificity prediction. We further demonstrated that by combining ICON and TCRAI, we are able to discover novel subgroups of TCRs that bind to a given pMHC via different mechanisms. Our framework facilitates the identification and understanding of TCR-antigen–specific interactions for basic immunological research and clinical immune monitoring.


2001 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 1065-1071 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mineki Saito ◽  
Graham P. Taylor ◽  
Akiko Saito ◽  
Yoshitaka Furukawa ◽  
Koichiro Usuku ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Using HLA-peptide tetrameric complexes, we isolated human T-cell lymphotrophic virus type 1 Tax peptide-specific CD8+ T cells ex vivo. Antigen-specific amino acid motifs were identified in the T-cell receptor Vβ CDR3 region of clonally expanded CD8+ T cells. This result directly confirms the importance of the CDR3 region in determining the antigen specificity in vivo.


Blood ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 134 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 5186-5186
Author(s):  
Ronald M. Paranal ◽  
Hagop M. Kantarjian ◽  
Alexandre Reuben ◽  
Celine Kerros ◽  
Priya Koppikar ◽  
...  

Introduction: Allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) is curative for many patients with advanced hematologic cancers, including adverse-risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML). This is principally through the induction of a graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) immune effect, mediated by donor T-cells. The incredible diversity and specificity of T-cells is due to rearrangement between V, D, and J regions and the random insertion/deletion of nucleotides, taking place in the hypervariable complementarity determining region 3 (CD3) of the T-cell receptor (TCR). Massively parallel sequencing of CDR3 allows for a detailed understanding of the T-cell repertoire, an area relatively unexplored in AML. Therefore, we sought out to characterize the T-cell repertoire in AML before and after HSCT, specifically for those with a durable remission. Methods: We identified 45 bone marrow biopsy samples, paired pre- and post-HSCT, from 14 patients with AML in remission for > 2 years as of last follow-up. We next performed immunosequencing of the TCRβ repertoire (Adaptive Biotechnologies). DNA was amplified in a bias-controlled multiplex PCR, resulting in amplification of rearranged VDJ segments, followed by high-throughput sequencing. Resultant sequences were collapsed and filtered in order to identify and quantitate the absolute abundance of each unique TCRβ CDR3 region. We next employed various metrics to characterize changes in the TCR repertoire: (1) clonality (range: 0-1; values closer to 1 indicate a more oligoclonal repertoire), it accounts for both the number of unique clonotypes and the extent to which a few clonotypes dominate the repertoire; (2) richness with a higher number indicating a more diverse repertoire with more unique rearrangements); (3) overlap (range: 0-1; with 1 being an identical T-cell repertoire). All calculations were done using the ImmunoSeq Analyzer software. Results: The median age of patients included in this cohort was 58 years (range: 31-69). Six patient (43%) had a matched related donor, and 8 (57%) had a matched unrelated donor. Baseline characteristics are summarized in Figure 1A. Six samples were excluded from further analysis due to quality. TCR richness did not differ comparing pre- and post-HSCT, with a median number pre-HSCT of 3566 unique sequences (range: 1282-22509) vs 3720 (range: 1540-12879) post-HSCT (P = 0.7). In order to assess whether there was expansion of certain T-cell clones following HSCT, we employed several metrics and all were indicative of an increase in clonality (Figure 2B). Productive clonality, a measure of reactivity, was significantly higher in post-transplant samples (0.09 vs 0.02, P = 0.003). This is a measure that would predict expansion of sequences likely to produce functional TCRs. The Maximum Productive Frequency Index was higher post-HSCT indicating that the increase in clonality was driven by the top clone (most prevalent per sample). Similarly for the Simpson's Dominance index, another marker of clonality which was higher post-HSCT (0.01 vs 0.0009, P = 0.04). In order to determine whether this clonal expansion was driven by TCR clones shared among patients, we compared the degree of overlap in unique sequences among pre and post-HSCT samples. We found there was very little overlap between samples in the pre and the post-transplant setting and no change in the Morisita and Jaccard Overlap Indices. Conclusions: In conclusion, we show in this analysis an increase in clonality of T-cells following HSCT in patients with AML. This is likely related to the GVL effect after recognition of leukemia antigens by donor T cells and subsequent expansion of these T-cells. These expanded T-cell clonotypes were unlikely to be shared by patients in this cohort, likely reflecting the variety of antigens leading to the GVL effect. This could have direct implications on TCR-mediated immune-therapies given the likely need for a personalized, patient-specific design for these therapies. Figure 1 Disclosures Kantarjian: BMS: Research Funding; Novartis: Research Funding; AbbVie: Honoraria, Research Funding; Jazz Pharma: Research Funding; Astex: Research Funding; Immunogen: Research Funding; Actinium: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Agios: Honoraria, Research Funding; Daiichi-Sankyo: Research Funding; Takeda: Honoraria; Amgen: Honoraria, Research Funding; Cyclacel: Research Funding; Ariad: Research Funding; Pfizer: Honoraria, Research Funding. Short:Takeda Oncology: Consultancy, Research Funding; AstraZeneca: Consultancy; Amgen: Honoraria. Cortes:Takeda: Consultancy, Research Funding; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Consultancy, Research Funding; Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Research Funding; Sun Pharma: Research Funding; BiolineRx: Consultancy; Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Astellas Pharma: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Merus: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Immunogen: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Biopath Holdings: Consultancy, Honoraria; Daiichi Sankyo: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Pfizer: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Forma Therapeutics: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding. Jabbour:Cyclacel LTD: Research Funding; Pfizer: Consultancy, Research Funding; Amgen: Consultancy, Research Funding; AbbVie: Consultancy, Research Funding; Takeda: Consultancy, Research Funding; BMS: Consultancy, Research Funding; Adaptive: Consultancy, Research Funding. Molldrem:M. D. Anderson & Astellas Pharma: Other: Royalties.


1991 ◽  
Vol 174 (2) ◽  
pp. 417-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
T Abo ◽  
T Ohteki ◽  
S Seki ◽  
N Koyamada ◽  
Y Yoshikai ◽  
...  

We demonstrated in the present study that with bacterial stimulation, an increased number of alpha/beta T cells proliferated in the liver of mice and that even T cells bearing self-reactive T cell receptor (TCR) (or forbidden T cell clones), as estimated by anti-V beta monoclonal antibodies in conjunction with immunofluorescence tests, appeared in the liver and, to some extent, in the periphery. The majority (greater than 80%) of forbidden clones induced had double-negative CD4-8-phenotype. In a syngeneic mixed lymphocyte reaction, these T cells appear to be self-reactive. Such forbidden clones and normal T cells in the liver showed a two-peak pattern of TCR expression, which consisted of alpha/beta TCR dull and bright positive cells, as seen in the thymus. A systematic analysis of TCR staining patterns in the various organs was then carried out. T cells from not only the thymus but also the liver had the two-peak pattern of alpha/beta TCR, whereas all of the other peripheral lymphoid organs had a single-peak pattern of TCR. However, T cells in the liver were not comprised of double-positive CD4+8+ cells, which predominantly reside in the thymus. The present results therefore suggest that T cell proliferation in the liver might reflect a major extrathymic pathway for T cell differentiation and that this hepatic pathway has the ability to produce T cells bearing self-reactive TCR under bacterial stimulation, probably due to the lack of a double-positive stage for negative selection.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document