Modification of Invariant Chain and CLIP Expression Increases the Immunogenicity of Leukemic Blasts to Potentiate Leukemia-Specific T Cell Reactivity

In patients suffering from AML, disease progression could be explained by the ability of leukemic blasts to escape immune surveillance. Since CD4+ T cells are indispensable for generating effective anti-leukemic immune responses, escaping leukemic blasts might exhibit aberrant HLA class II antigen presentation that interferes with antigen-specific CD4+ T cell activation. The Invariant Chain (Ii) is essentially involved in HLA class II processing, since it blocks endogenous antigen loading of HLA class II in the endoplasmic reticulum and mediates its transport to the lysosomal exogenous antigen-loading compartments. We previously showed that increased expression of the class II-associated invariant chain peptide (CLIP), a small remnant of Ii, on AML blasts predicts poor clinical outcome [Chamuleau et al., Cancer Research2004; 64]. This study was undertaken to modulate Ii and CLIP expression of leukemic blasts and examine the impact on leukemia-specific CD4+ T cell recognition. The THP-1 and Kasumi-1 AML cell lines were selected for Ii and CLIP modulation based upon their flow cytometrically determined DR+CLIP+Ii+ immunophenotype. Retroviral transduction of both THP-1 and Kasumi-1 with specific Ii siRNAs led to a clear decline in Ii expression, as MFI values dropped from 4.5 to 1.4 and 13.5 to 0.9, respectively, 6 weeks after transduction. Interestingly, the effect of Ii down-modulation on CLIP and HLA-DR expression levels differed between THP-1 and Kasumi-1 blasts. In THP-1, Ii down-modulation resulted in reduced CLIP expression (MFI values decreased from 35.9 to 14.0), while HLA-DR expression levels remained relatively constant. This yielded a marked reduction in the relative amount of CLIP presented by DR (decline from 1.12 to 0.52). In Kasumi-1, both CLIP and DR levels were markedly decreased by Ii down-modulation (MFI values declined from respectively 35.5 to 2.7 and 24.6 to 3.7). Although total DR expression was already reduced, the relative amount of CLIP presented by DR was even further reduced (decline from 1.49 to 0.78). These results might indicate that Ii and CLIP down-modulation enables HLA class II presentation of leukemia-associated antigens on these blast cell lines. Subsequently, DR+CLIP+Ii+ and DR+CLIP−Ii− blasts were compared in their capacity to induce allogeneic CD4+ T cell proliferation in mixed leukocyte reactions (MLRs). CD4+ T cells were obtained from different healthy donors and cultured in triplicate with irradiated blasts at various stimulator-to-responder (S/R) ratios. MLRs consisting of DR+CLIP−Ii− THP-1 blasts showed marked increases in CD4+ T cell proliferation in a S/R dependent manner compared to MLRs performed with DR+CLIP+Ii+ THP-1 blasts. These increases in CD4+ T cell proliferation (maximal 4.5-fold) correlated strongly with the decreased relative CLIP/DR amounts on THP-1 transductants. Similar increases in CD4+ T cell proliferation were observed when DR+CLIP−Ii− Kasumi-1 blasts were used as stimulator cells, also clearly correlating with the accompanying relative CLIP/DR amounts. The DR-specific L243 antibody totally abrogated CD4+ T cell proliferation, confirming HLA-DR restriction of the proliferative responses. These data demonstrate an essential role for Ii and CLIP expression of AML blasts in modifying T cell responsiveness and introduce Ii down-modulation as a potential immunotherapeutic strategy to activate leukemia-specific CD4+ T cells.