Name: high-efficiency generation of antigen-specific primary mouse cytotoxic t cells for functional testing in an autoimmune diabetes model
Uploaded: 2019-08-16T14:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about High-Efficiency Generation of Antigen-Specific Primary Mouse Cytotoxic T Cells for Functional Testing in an Autoimmune Diabetes Model at JoVE.com

This study was supported by JDRF grants 1-INO-2015-74-S-B, 2-SRA-2016-238-S-B, and SRA-2-S-2018-648-S-B, a Diabetes Education and Action Award, and the Caroline Wiess Law Fund for Research in Molecular Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. Cell-sorting was supported by the Cytometry and Cell Sorting Core at Baylor College of Medicine with funding from the NIH (S10RR024574 and P30CA125123). All the peptide-MHC tetramers were obtained from the NIH Tetramer Core Facility.

Mice were maintained under specific pathogen-free conditions at a Transgenic Mouse Facility, and all animal experiments were performed in accordance with protocols approved by the Baylor College of Medicine animal care and use committee.
NOTE: The experiment requires preparing the virus and the T cells in parallel. Table 1 summarizes the protocol. The key reagents and buffers are listed in the Table of Materials. We focus on the generation and expansion of CAR...

<ol>
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This protocol describes an efficient method for producing antigen-specific CD8 CAR-T cells by retroviral transduction. The transduction efficiency of our protocol is typically high, and robust expression of the CAR is generally observed. The expanded CAR T cells retain the essential features of the parent-activated T cells, and antibody specificity, and are suitable for both in vitro and in vivo use. We have applied Ab-CAR CD8 T cells in reprograming Type 1 Diabetes in NOD mice7.
<p class="jov...

Given the likely reduced risk of unwanted off-target effects, antigen-specific immune therapies (ASI) are promising treatments for autoimmune diseases such as T1D. Accumulating evidence suggests that immune responses to (prepro)insulin may be particularly important in T1D1. In the past decade, studies from multiple groups, including our own, strongly suggest that presentation of an epitope containing insulin B chain amino acids 9 to 23 by specific MHC class II molecules (B:9-23/MHCII), plays an important role in the development of T1D in mice and humans2,3,4,5. To selectively target the B:9-23/MHCII complex, we generated a monoclonal antibody, named mAb287, that has no cross reactivity to the hormone insulin or complexes containing other peptides6. MAb287 blocks antigen presentation in vitro, and weekly administration of mAb287 to pre-diabetic NOD mice delayed the development of T1D in 35% of the treated mice6. To block antigen presentation in vivo, frequent injections are typically required in order to maintain a high circulating concentration. We hypothesized that we could overcome this difficulty by taking advantage of the high specificity of Ab287 to reprogram T cells, thereby providing an improved antigen-specific T cell therapy for T1D7.
Cytotoxic T cells are reported to be able to kill their target if even a single copy of their cognate ligand is expressed8,9,10. Thus, B:9-23/MHCII specific CD8 T cells are expected to have higher efficiency in eliminating the unwanted antigen presentation than the parent antibody, which will likely need to bind to multiple complexes on the same APC to exert its effect. CAR T cells have been used for treating multiple human cancers11,12,13, and may also be efficacious in autoimmunity14. However, CAR-T cells with specificity for pathogenic peptide-MHC complexes have not so far been used to modify the progression of T1D. By using the optimized CD8 T cell transduction technique described below, we recently demonstrated proof of principle that this indeed represents a viable approach7.
In this protocol, we outline an efficient and streamlined transduction and expansion method. Our protocol is applicable to other studies requiring the generation of mouse CD8 CAR T cells with high efficiency.

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>2-Mercaptoethanol (50mM)</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>21985-023</td>
			<td>50 uM</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>5&#8217; RACE PCR</td>
			<td>Clontech</td>
			<td>634859</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>anti-mouse CD28 antibodies</td>
			<td>eBioscience</td>
			<td>14-0281-86</td>
			<td>final concentration at 1&#181;g/ml</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>anti-mouse CD3e antibody</td>
			<td>eBioscience</td>
			<td>145-2C11</td>
			<td>final concentration at 1&#181;g/ml</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Biotin Rat Anti-Mouse IFN-&#947;</td>
			<td>BD Biosciences</td>
			<td>554410</td>
			<td>Working concentration at 0.5 &#181;g/ml</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>BSA</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>A7030</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Endo-free Maxi-Prep kit</td>
			<td>Qiagen</td>
			<td>12362</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Gentamicin</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>15750-060</td>
			<td>Final 50 &#181;g/ml.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Heat inactivated FCS</td>
			<td>Hyclone</td>
			<td>SH30087.03</td>
			<td>Final 10% FCS</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>HEPES (100X)</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>15630-080</td>
			<td>1X</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>IAg7-CLIP tetramer-BV421</td>
			<td>NIH tetramer Facility at Emory</td>
			<td>per approval</td>
			<td>Working concentration at 6 &#181;g/ml</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>IAg7-insulin P8E tetramer-BV421</td>
			<td>NIH tetramer Facility at Emory</td>
			<td>per approval</td>
			<td>Working concentration at 6 &#181;g/ml</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Insulin-Transferrin-Selenium-Ethanolamine (ITS 100x)</td>
			<td>ThermoFisher</td>
			<td>51500056</td>
			<td>Final concentraion is 1x</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Lipofectamine 2000</td>
			<td>Invitrogen</td>
			<td>11668019</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>LS Columns</td>
			<td>Miltenyi Biotec</td>
			<td>130-042-401</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>MACS Separation Buffer</td>
			<td>Miltenyi Biotec</td>
			<td>130-091-221</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Mouse CD8a+ T Cell Isolation Kit</td>
			<td>Miletenyi Biotec Inc</td>
			<td>130-104-075</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Mouse CD8a+ T Cell Isolation Kit</td>
			<td>Miltenyi Biotec</td>
			<td>130-104-075</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Opti-MEM medium</td>
			<td>ThermoFisher</td>
			<td>31985070</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Penicillin-Streptomycin (5000U/ml)</td>
			<td>ThermoFisher</td>
			<td>15070063</td>
			<td>50 U/ml</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Phoenix-ECO cells</td>
			<td>ATCC</td>
			<td>CRL-3214</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Phosphate-buffered saline (PBS)</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>10010-023</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>pMIG II</td>
			<td>Addgene</td>
			<td>52107</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>pMSCV-IRES-GFP II</td>
			<td>Addgene</td>
			<td>52107</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Purified Rat Anti-Mouse IFN-&#947;</td>
			<td>BD Biosciences</td>
			<td>551216</td>
			<td>Working concentration at 3 &#181;g/ml</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Red cell lysis buffer</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>R7767</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>RetroNectin</td>
			<td>Takara</td>
			<td>T100A</td>
			<td>Working concentration at 50 &#181;g/ml in PBS</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>rhIL-2 (stock concentration 105 IU/ul)</td>
			<td>Peprotech</td>
			<td>200-02</td>
			<td>Final concentration at 200 IU/ml</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>rmIL-7 ( stock concentration 50ng/ul)</td>
			<td>R&#38;D</td>
			<td>407-ML-005</td>
			<td>Final concentration at 0.5ng/ml</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>RPMI-1640</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>11875-093</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Sterile Cell Strainers</td>
			<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>22-363-548</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Tryple</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>12605-028</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

high-efficiency generation of antigen-specific primary mouse cytotoxic t cells for functional testing in an autoimmune diabetes model

Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) is characterized by islet-specific autoimmunity leading to beta cell destruction and absolute loss of insulin production. In the spontaneous non-obese diabetes (NOD) mouse model, insulin is the primary target, and genetic manipulation of these animals to remove a single key insulin epitope prevents disease. Thus, selective elimination of professional antigen presenting cells (APCs) bearing this pathogenic epitope is an approach to inhibit the unwanted insulin-specific autoimmune responses, and likely has greater translational potential.
Chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) can redirect T cells to selectively target disease-causing antigens. This technique is fundamental to recent attempts to use cellular engineering for adoptive cell therapy to treat multiple cancers. In this protocol, we describe an optimized T-cell retrovirus (RV) transduction and in vitro expansion protocol that generates high numbers of functional antigen-specific CD8 CAR-T cells starting from a low number of naive cells. Previously multiple CAR-T cell protocols have been described, but typically with relatively low transduction efficiency and cell viability following transduction. In contrast, our protocol provides up to 90% transduction efficiency, and the cells generated can survive more than two weeks in vivo and significantly delay disease onset following a single infusion. We provide a detailed description of the cell maintenance and transduction protocol, so that the critical steps can be easily followed. The whole procedure from primary cell isolation to CAR expression can be performed within 14 days. The general method may be applied to any mouse disease model in which the target is known. Similarly, the specific application (targeting a pathogenic peptide/MHC class II complex) is applicable to any other autoimmune disease model for which a key complex has been identified.

Typically, the transduction efficiency using this protocol is ~60-90%. In the experiment shown in Figure 3, prior to sorting approximately, 70% of the CD8 T cells co-expressed GFP. They also co-expressed CD28 and CD3 (Figure 3C). Importantly, all of the &#8220;test&#8221; GFP+ cells also co-stained with IAg7-B:R3 tetramers, but not with the control tetramer (Figure 4). Similarly...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about High-Efficiency Generation of Antigen-Specific Primary Mouse Cytotoxic T Cells for Functional Testing in an Autoimmune Diabetes Model at JoVE.com

High-Efficiency Generation of Antigen-Specific Primary Mouse Cytotoxic T Cells for Functional Testing in an Autoimmune Diabetes Model

This article describes a protocol for the generation of antigen-specific CD8 T cells, and their expansion in vitro, with the aim of yielding high numbers of functional T cells for use in vitro and in vivo.

Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) is characterized by islet-specific autoimmunity leading to beta cell destruction and absolute loss of insulin production. In the ...

This protocol allows you to generate a large number of functional antigen-specific T cells which are a desired safe approach in treating autoimmune diseases. The main advantage of this technique is that it provides you with a highly efficient transduction process and a large number of functional T cells. This technique can be extended to treat type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases in which antigens are known.Furthermore, CAR T cells may be a promising treatment for certain types of cancer. This method can be used to generate immune cells expressing other CARs. It is important to have good accepted technique, read the entire protocol and plan the whole experiment in advance.This two week long protocol includes mini-steps and success is dependent on proper performance of each step. Visual demonstrations of this method is critical for learners to follow correctly. Prepare Phoenix cells for transfection as described in the manuscript.It is good practice to mark the side wall where medium will be added and removed to minimize blowing off cells. On day zero aspirate the supernatant from the cells and wash them with five milliliters of PBS. Carefully add seven milliliters of reduced serum medium dropwise to the side wall of the plate and transfer the cells back to the incubator.Add 1.5 milliliters of reduced serum medium to two 14 millimeter round bottom polypropylene tubes. Add 40 micrometers of transfection reagent to one of the tubes and 15 micrograms of antibody redirected CAR plasmid along with five micrograms of packaging plasmid to the other. Incubate the tubes at room temperature for five minutes and then add transfection reagent to the plasmid tube.Mix by gently pipetting the solution up and down three times and incubate it at room temperature for at least 20 minutes. Add three milliliters of the mixture to the Phoenix cells and place them in a tissue culture incubator. After four to five hours add one milliliter of FCS to the cells and culture them overnight at 37 degrees Celsius.On the next day, remove the supernatant from the cells and add four milliliters of fresh prewarmed culture medium. Harvest the virus on day two by collecting the virus containing medium from the Phoenix cells and filtering it to remove residual cell debris. Add recombinant human IL-2 stock to the virus for a final concentration of 200 international units per milliliter and use it immediately for transduction.Add four milliliters of fresh medium to the Phoenix cells and place them in the incubator overnight. Repeat virus collection on the next day for a second transduction and discard the cells. One day prior to seeding murine CD8 T cells, add one milliliter of a mixture of anti-mouse CD3 and CD28 antibodies to each well of a 24 well plate and incubate the plate overnight at four degree Celsius.On day zero, harvest mouse spleens and put them on a cell strainer soaking in 10 milliliters of PBS in a cell culture dish on ice. In a cell culture hood, cut each spleen into three to five pieces and use a sterile plunger of a syringe to press the tissue through the wire mesh. Gently remove red blood cells by resuspending splenocytes in one to four diluted red cell lysis buffer and incubating them at room temperature for five minutes then dilute 10 microliters of the cell suspension with Trypan Blue for cell counting.And pellet the rest of the cells by centrifuging at 350 times g for seven minutes. Use a mouse CD8 T cell isolation kit to enrich CD8 T cells and suspend the cell pellets in 400 microliters of buffer with 100 microliters of biotin antibody cocktail per one times 10 to the eighth cells. Mix the cell suspension well and incubate it for five minutes at four degrees Celsius to allow for antibody binding.Then add 300 microliters of labeling buffer and 200 microliters of Anti-Biotin MicroBeads per one times 10 to the eighth cells. Mix well and incubate for another 10 minutes at four degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, set up a separation column on the separator and wash it with three milliliters of labeling buffer.Put a 40 micrometer cell strainer on the top of a column and pass one milliliter of the bead and cell mixture through the strainer into the separation column. Collect the flow through into a prechilled 15 milliliter tube and wash the column according to the manufacturer's directions, collecting effluent into the same tube. Count the cells and collect them by centrifugation at 350 times g for five minutes.Wash them with two milliliters of T cell medium and centrifuge again. Then resuspend them in prewarmed T cell medium at a concentration of 250, 000 to 500, 000 cells per milliliter. Wash the previously prepared CD3 and CD28 antibody coated plates with one milliliter of sterile PBS three times and add two milliliters of the cell suspension to each well.Use a swirling motion to dispense cells evenly. As a control, plate the same number of CD8 T cells into a single non-coated well of the plate and incubate the cells at 37 degrees Celsius in a 10%carbon dioxide gas tank incubator for 48 hours. On day one, prepare human fibronectin fragment coated plates by adding 0.5 milliliters of fibronectin to the wells of a 24-well plate and incubating it over night at four degrees Celsius.On the next day, remove the fibronectin solution and add one milliliter of 2%BSA and PBS per well. Incubate the plate at room temperature for 30 minutes and wash the treated wells with one milliliter of sterile PBS. The plate is ready to use after removing wash solution.Count the activated CD8 T cells using Trypan Blue. Collect them by centrifugation. And resuspend them at five million viable cells per milliliter for transduction.Add 100 microliters of the activated CD8 cell suspension to each well of the fibronectin coated plate. Then add 1.5 to two milliliters of the previously prepared virus containing medium and mix using a swirling motion to evenly dispensed the cells. Seal the plate in a Ziploc bag and centrifuge it at 2, 000 times g for 90 minutes at 37 degrees Celsius.Remove the plate from the centrifuge and take it to a biological safety cabinet. Carefully remove the plastic bag and ensure that the outside of the plate is not contaminated with medium. Transfer the plate to a 37 degrees Celsius carbon dioxide incubator.After four hours, remove one milliliter of medium from each well, replace it with one milliliter of prewarmed complete T cell medium and put the plate back in the incubator. The critical aspects of this protocol are a high titer virus, healthy activated T cells, and the appropriate transduction method. Cells were co-stained with PE size seven conjugated anti-CD8, AF647 conjugated anti-CD3, and BV 421 conjugated anti-CD28 for flow cytometric analysis.Approximately, 70%of the CD8 T cells co-expressed GFP which indicates CAR expression. They also co-expressed CD28 and CD3. Importantly, all of the test GFP positive cells also co-stained with I-Ag7 insulin BR3 tetramers which indicates expression of CAR on cell surface but not with the control tetramer.Furthermore, the sorted test and control CAR T cells each secreted high levels of interferon gamma only after coculture with target cells expressing their cognate ligands which confirms that the transduced cells have a CD8 effector T cell phenotype directed toward the target of the parent antibodies. Transduction of virus producer cells, isolation of primary CD8 T cells, and activation of these T cells are the most important steps of this experiment. Having healthy activated T cells and transduction of these T cells with appropriate reagents ensures favorable results.This method can be used to transduce other T cells but it must be customized for the specific T cell type. This protocol paves the way for the prevention of type 1 diabetes with antigen-specific chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy.

high-efficiency-generation-antigen-specific-primary-mouse-cytotoxic-t

Research

JoVE Journal

Immunology and Infection

Generation of Induced Regulatory T Cells from Primary Human Na&iuml;ve and Memory T Cells

The development and maintenance of immunosuppressive CD4+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) contribute to the peripheral tolerance needed to remain in immunologic homeostasis with the vast amount of self and commensal antigens in and on the human body. Perturbations in the balance between Tregs and inflammatory conventional T cells can result in immunopathology or cancer. Although therapeutic injection of Tregs has been shown to be efficacious in murine models of colitis1 , type I diabetes2 , rheumatoid arthritis and graft versus host disease,4 several fundamental differences in human versus mouse Treg biology5 has thus far precluded clinical use. The lack of sufficient number, purity, stability and homing specificity of therapeutic Tregs necessitated a dynamic platform of human Treg development on which to optimize conditions for their ex vivo expansion6.
Here we describe a method for the differentiation of induced Tregs (iTregs) from a single human peripheral blood donor which can be broken down into four stages: isolation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells, magnetic selection of CD4+ T cells, in vitro cell culture and fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) of T cell subsets. Since the Treg signature transcription factor forkhead box P3 (FoxP3) is an activation-induced transcription factor in humans7 and no other unique marker exists, a combinatorial panel of markers must be used to identify T cells with suppressor activity. After six days in culture, cells in our system can be demarcated into na&iuml;ve T cells, memory T cells or iTregs based on their relative expression of CD25 and CD45RA. As memory and na&iuml;ve T cells have different reported polarization requirements and plasticities8 , pre-sorting of the initial T cell population into CD45RA+ and CD45RO+ subsets can be used to examine these discrepancies. Consistent with others, our CD25HiCD45RA- iTregs express high levels of FoxP39 , GITR and CTLA-411 and low levels of CD12712 . Following FACS of each population, resultant cells can be used in a suppressor assay which evaluates the relative ability to retard the proliferation of carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester (CFSE)-labeled autologous T cells.

Generation of Induced Regulatory T Cells from Primary Human Na&#239;ve and Memory T Cells

We describe a method for generating regulatory, memory and na&#239;ve T cells from a single human blood donor. Polarized Tregs can be then compared to other subsets in a variety of genetic and functional applications with genetic homogeneity, including a suppression assay also detailed here.

The development and maintenance of immunosuppressive CD4+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) contribute to the peripheral tolerance needed to remain in ...

piggyBac Transposon System Modification of Primary Human T Cells

The piggyBac transposon system is naturally active, originally derived from the cabbage looper moth1,2. This non-viral system is plasmid based, most commonly utilizing two plasmids with one expressing the piggyBac transposase enzyme and a transposon plasmid harboring the gene(s) of interest between inverted repeat elements which are required for gene transfer activity. PiggyBac mediates gene transfer through a "cut and paste" mechanism whereby the transposase integrates the transposon segment into the genome of the target cell(s) of interest. PiggyBac has demonstrated efficient gene delivery activity in a wide variety of insect1,2, mammalian3-5, and human cells6 including primary human T cells7,8. Recently, a hyperactive piggyBac transposase was generated improving gene transfer efficiency9,10.
Human T lymphocytes are of clinical interest for adoptive immunotherapy of cancer11. Of note, the first clinical trial involving transposon modification of human T cells using the Sleeping beauty transposon system has been approved12. We have previously evaluated the utility of piggyBac as a non-viral methodology for genetic modification of human T cells. We found piggyBac to be efficient in genetic modification of human T cells with a reporter gene and a non-immunogenic inducible suicide gene7. Analysis of genomic integration sites revealed a lack of preference for integration into or near known proto-oncogenes13. We used piggyBac to gene-modify cytotoxic T lymphocytes to carry a chimeric antigen receptor directed against the tumor antigen HER2, and found that gene-modified T cells mediated targeted killing of HER2-positive tumor cells in vitro and in vivo in an orthotopic mouse model14. We have also used piggyBac to generate human T cells resistant to rapamycin, which should be useful in cancer therapies where rapamycin is utilized15.
Herein, we describe a method for using piggyBac to genetically modify primary human T cells. This includes isolation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from human blood followed by culture, gene modification, and activation of T cells. For the purpose of this report, T cells were modified with a reporter gene (eGFP) for analysis and quantification of gene expression by flow cytometry.
PiggyBac can be used to modify human T cells with a variety of genes of interest. Although we have used piggyBac to direct T cells to tumor antigens14, we have also used piggyBac to add an inducible safety switch in order to eliminate gene modified cells if needed7. The large cargo capacity of piggyBac has also enabled gene transfer of a large rapamycin resistant mTOR molecule (15 kb)15. Therefore, we present a non-viral methodology for stable gene-modification of primary human T cells for a wide variety of purposes.

piggyBac Transposon System Modification of Primary Human T Cells

We describe a method to genetically modify primary human T cells with a transgene using the non-viral piggyBac transposon system. T cells modified to using the piggyBac transposon system exhibit stable transgene expression.

The piggyBac transposon system is naturally active, originally derived from the cabbage looper moth1,2. This non-viral system is plasmid based, most ...

Killer Artificial Antigen Presenting Cells (KaAPC) for Efficient In Vitro Depletion of Human Antigen-specific T Cells

Current treatment of T cell mediated autoimmune diseases relies mostly on strategies of global immunosuppression, which, in the long term, is accompanied by adverse side effects such as a reduced ability to control infections or malignancies. Therefore, new approaches need to be developed that target only the disease mediating cells and leave the remaining immune system intact. Over the past decade a variety of cell based immunotherapy strategies to modulate T cell mediated immune responses have been developed. Most of these approaches rely on tolerance-inducing antigen presenting cells (APC). However, in addition to being technically difficult and cumbersome, such cell-based approaches are highly sensitive to cytotoxic T cell responses, which limits their therapeutic capacity. Here we present a protocol for the generation of non-cellular killer artificial antigen presenting cells (KaAPC), which allows for the depletion of pathologic T cells while leaving the remaining immune system untouched and functional. KaAPC is an alternative solution to cellular immunotherapy which has potential for treating autoimmune diseases and allograft rejections by regulating undesirable T cell responses in an antigen specific fashion.

Killer Artificial Antigen Presenting Cells KaAPC for Efficient In Vitro Depletion of Human Antigen-specific T Cells

Guidelines are presented for the generation of killer artificial antigen presenting cells, KaAPC, an efficient tool for in vitro depletion of human antigen-specific T cells and an alternative solution to cellular immunotherapy for the treatment of T cell-mediated autoimmune diseases in an antigen-specific fashion without compromising the remaining immune system.

Current treatment of T cell mediated autoimmune diseases relies mostly on strategies of global immunosuppression, which, in the long term, is accompanied ...

Isolation of Infiltrating Leukocytes from Mouse Skin Using Enzymatic Digest and Gradient Separation

Dissociating murine skin into a single cell suspension is essential for downstream cellular analysis such as the characterization of infiltrating immune cells in rodent models of skin inflammation. Here, we describe a protocol for the digestion of mouse skin in a nutrient-rich solution with collagenase D, followed by separation of hematopoietic cells using a discontinuous density gradient. Cells thus obtained can be used for in vitro studies, in vivo transfer, and other downstream cellular and molecular analyses including flow cytometry. This protocol is an effective and economical alternative to expensive mechanical dissociators, specialized separation columns, and harsher trypsin- and dispase-based digestion methods, which may compromise cellular viability or density of surface proteins relevant for phenotypic characterization or cellular function. As shown here in our representative data, this protocol produced highly viable cells, contained specific immune cell subsets, and had no effect on integrity of common surface marker proteins used in flow cytometric analysis.

This protocol describes enzymatic digestion of mouse skin in nutrient-rich medium followed by gradient separation to isolate leukocytes. Cells thus derived can be used for diverse downstream applications. This is an effective, economical, and improved alternative to tissue dissociation machines and harsher trypsin and dispase-based tissue digestion protocols.

Dissociating murine skin into a single cell suspension is essential for downstream cellular analysis such as the characterization of infiltrating immune ...

Development of Stem Cell-derived Antigen-specific Regulatory T Cells Against Autoimmunity

Autoimmune diseases arise due to the loss of immunological self-tolerance. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are important mediators of immunologic self-tolerance. Tregs represent about 5 - 10% of the mature CD4+ T cell subpopulation in mice and humans, with about 1 - 2% of those Tregs circulating in the peripheral blood. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can be differentiated into functional Tregs, which have a potential to be used for cell-based therapies of autoimmune diseases. Here, we present a method to develop antigen (Ag)-specific Tregs from iPSCs (i.e., iPSC-Tregs). The method is based on incorporating the transcription factor FoxP3 and an Ag-specific T cell receptor (TCR) into iPSCs and then differentiating on OP9 stromal cells expressing Notch ligands delta-like (DL) 1 and DL4. Following in vitro differentiation, the iPSC-Tregs express CD4, CD8, CD3, CD25, FoxP3, and Ag-specific TCR and are able to respond to Ag stimulation. This method has been successfully applied to cell-based therapy of autoimmune arthritis in a murine model. Adoptive transfer of these Ag-specific iPSC-Tregs into Ag-induced arthritis (AIA)-bearing mice has the ability to reduce joint inflammation and swelling and to prevent bone loss.

We present here a method to develop functional antigen (Ag)-specific regulatory T cells (Tregs) from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) for immunotherapy of autoimmune arthritis in a murine model.

Autoimmune diseases arise due to the loss of immunological self-tolerance. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are important mediators of immunologic ...

Detection and Enrichment of Rare Antigen-specific B Cells for Analysis of Phenotype and Function

B cells reactive with a specific antigen usually occur at a frequency of &lt;0.05% of lymphocytes. For decades researchers have sought methods to isolate and enrich these rare cells for studies of their phenotype and biology. Approaches are inevitably based on the principle that B cells recognize native antigen by virtue of cell surface receptors that are representative in specificity of antibodies that will eventually be secreted by their differentiated daughters. Perhaps the most obvious approach to the problem involves use of fluorochrome-conjugated antigens in conjunction with fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). However, the utility of these methods is limited by cell frequency and the achievable rate of analysis and isolation by electronic sorting. A novel method to enrich rare antigen-specific B cells using magnetic nanoparticles that results in high yield enrichment of antigen-reactive B cells from large starting cell populations is described. This method enables improved monitoring of the phenotype and biology of antigen reactive cells before and following in vivo antigen encounter, such as after immunization or during development of autoimmunity.

A simple yet effective method that employs magnetic nanoparticles to detect and enrich antigen-reactive B cells for functional and phenotypic analysis is described.

B cells reactive with a specific antigen usually occur at a frequency of &lt;0.05% of lymphocytes. For decades researchers have sought methods to isolate ...

In Vivo Assay for Detection of Antigen-specific T-cell Cytolytic Function Using a Vaccination Model

Current methodologies for antigen-specific killing are limited to in vitro use or utilized in infectious disease models. However, there is not a protocol specifically intended to measure antigen-specific killing without an infection. This protocol is designed and describes methods to overcome these limitations by allowing for the detection of antigen-specific killing of a target cell by CD8+ T cells in vivo. This is accomplished by merging a vaccination model with a traditional CFSE-labeled target killing assay. This combination allows the researcher to assess the antigen-specific CTL potential directly and quickly as the assay is not dependent upon tumor growth or infection. In addition, the readout is based on flow cytometry and so should be readily accessible to most researchers. The major limitation of the study is identifying the timeline in vivo that is appropriate to the hypothesis being tested. Variations in antigen strength and mutations in the T cells that may result in differential cytolytic function need to be carefully assessed to determine the optimal time for cell harvest and assessment. The appropriate concentration of peptide for vaccination has been optimized for hgp10025-33 and OVA257-264, but further validation would be needed for other peptides that may be more appropriate to a given study. Overall, this protocol allows a quick assessment of killing function in vivo and can be adapted to any given antigen.

In Vivo Assay for Detection of Antigen-specific T-cell Cytolytic Function Using a Vaccination Model

The goal of this protocol is to allow for detection of in vivo antigen-specific killing of a target cell in a murine model.

Current methodologies for antigen-specific killing are limited to in vitro use or utilized in infectious disease models. However, there is not a protocol ...

Generation of Discriminative Human Monoclonal Antibodies from Rare Antigen-specific B Cells Circulating in Blood

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are powerful tools useful for both fundamental research and in biomedicine. Their high specificity is indispensable when the antibody needs to distinguish between highly related structures (e.g., a normal protein and a mutated version thereof). The current way of generating such discriminative mAbs involves extensive screening of multiple Ab-producing B cells, which is both costly and time consuming. We propose here a rapid and cost-effective method for the generation of discriminative, fully human mAbs starting from human blood circulating B lymphocytes. The originality of this strategy is due to the selection of specific antigen binding B cells combined with the counter-selection of all other cells, using readily available Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMC). Once specific B cells are isolated, cDNA (complementary deoxyribonucleic acid) sequences coding for the corresponding mAb are obtained using single cell Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) technology and subsequently expressed in human cells. Within as little as 1 month, it is possible to produce milligrams of highly discriminative human mAbs directed against virtually any desired antigen naturally detected by the B cell repertoire.

We describe a method for the production of human antibodies specific for an antigen of interest, starting from rare B cells circulating in human blood. Generation of these natural antibodies is efficient and rapid, and the antibodies obtained can discriminate between highly related antigens.

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are powerful tools useful for both fundamental research and in biomedicine. Their high specificity is indispensable when the ...

Quantification of Proliferating Human Antigen-specific CD4+ T Cells using Carboxyfluorescein Succinimidyl Ester

Described is a simple, in vitro, dye dilution-based method for measuring antigen-specific CD4+ T cell proliferation in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). The development of stable, non-toxic, fluorescent dyes such as carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester (CFSE) allows for rare, antigen-specific T cells to be distinguished from bystanders by diminution in fluorescent staining, as detected by flow cytometry. This method has the following advantages over alternative approaches: (i) it is very sensitive to low-frequency T cells, (ii) no knowledge of the antigen or epitope is required, (iii) the phenotype of the responding cells can be analyzed, and (iv) viable, responding cells can be sorted and used for further analysis, such as T cell cloning.

Quantification of Proliferating Human Antigen-specific CD4+ T Cells using Carboxyfluorescein Succinimidyl Ester

Presented here is a protocol for measuring proliferating CD4+ T cells in response to antigenic proteins or peptides using dye dilution. This assay is particularly sensitive to rare antigen-specific T cells and can be modified to facilitate cloning of antigen-specific cells.

Described is a simple, in vitro, dye dilution-based method for measuring antigen-specific CD4+ T cell proliferation in human peripheral blood mononuclear ...

Experimental Autoimmune Uveitis: An Intraocular Inflammatory Mouse Model

Experimental Autoimmune Uveitis (EAU) is driven by immune cells responding to self-antigens. Many features of this non-infectious, intraocular inflammatory disease model recapitulate the clinical phenotype of posterior uveitis affecting humans. EAU has been used reliably to study the efficacy of novel inflammatory therapeutics, their mode of action and to further investigate the mechanisms that underpin disease progression of intraocular disorders. Here, we provide a detailed protocol on EAU induction in the C57BL/6J mouse - the most widely used model organism with susceptibility to this disease. Clinical assessment of disease severity and progression will be demonstrated using fundoscopy, histological examination and fluorescein angiography. The induction procedure involves subcutaneous&#160;injection of an emulsion containing a peptide (IRBP1-20) from the ocular protein interphotoreceptor retinoid binding protein (also known as retinol binding protein 3), Complete Freund&#39;s Adjuvant (CFA) and supplemented with killed Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Injection of this viscous emulsion on the back of the neck is followed by a single intraperitoneal injection of Bordetella pertussis toxin. At the onset of symptoms (day 12-14) and under general anesthesia, fundoscopic images are taken to assess disease progression through clinical examination. These data can be directly compared with those at later timepoints and peak disease (day 20-22) with differences analyzed. At the same time, this protocol allows the investigator to assess potential differences in vessel permeability and damage using fluorescein angiography. EAU can be induced in other mouse strains - both wildtype or genetically modified - and combined with novel therapies offering flexibility for studying drug efficacy and/or disease mechanisms.

In this report we present a protocol that allows the investigator to generate a mouse model of intraocular uveitis. More commonly referred to as experimental autoimmune uveitis (EAU), this established model captures many aspects of human disease. Herein, we will describe how to induce and monitor disease progression using several readouts.