|
||
Brief Definitive Reports |
| Abstract |
|---|
|
|
|---|
It is now well established that unmethylated CpG dinucleotide motifs of bacterial DNA have the capacity to cause polyclonal activation of B cells and stimulation of APCs (1–8). The immunostimulatory property of unmethylated CpG motifs is not unique to bacteria and applies to a wide spectrum of nonvertebrates including insects, nematodes, mollusks, and yeast (3, 9, 10); by contrast, DNA from various vertebrates, e.g., frogs and fish, is nonstimulatory. The capacity of nonvertebrate DNA to stimulate B cells and APCs is shared by synthetic oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) containing unmethylated CpG motifs (5, 11). When coinjected with antigen, these agents also enhance the generation of cytotoxic T cell activity and production of specific antibody and IFN-
Stimulation of APCs via unmethylated CpG motifs could explain the remarkable efficacy of "naked" DNA vaccines (16). In this respect, the induction of antigen-specific responses after DNA vaccination is reported to be much more efficient when the plasmid vector for mammalian DNA contains unmethylated CpG motifs (17, 18). In light of this finding, DNA vaccines may operate not only by providing a source of specific antigen (peptide) but by acting as an adjuvant, i.e., by enhancing the immunogenicity of APCs. According to this notion, the poor immunogenicity of proteins or peptides given in solution could be overcome simply by coinjecting any source of DNA containing stimulatory CpG motifs. In support of this prediction we show here that, when suspended in mineral oil, insect DNA and ODNs containing unmethylated CpG motifs act as powerful adjuvants in mice when coinjected with foreign peptides or proteins. ODNs also have adjuvant activity in soluble form and markedly amplify clonal expansion of TCR transgenic T cells responding to specific peptide.
Proteins and Peptides.
DNA and ODNs.
Immunization with F
In Vitro T Proliferation Assay and IFN-
Adoptive Transfer, Immunization, and In Vivo Proliferation of TCR Transgenic T Cells.
Cell Surface Staining and Flow Cytometry.
Adjuvant Effect of Insect DNA on Normal CD4+ T Cells.
(12–15).
![]()
Materials and Methods
Top
Abstract
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
Mice.
C57BL/6J (B6) mice were purchased from The Jackson Laboratory (Bar Harbor, ME). 2C TCR transgenic mice (9) were bred and maintained at The Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla, CA).
Fowl
-globulin (F
G) was purchased from Pel-Freez Biologicals (Rogers, AR). A synthetic peptide, SIYRYYGL (19), recognized by 2C TCR transgenic cells in the context of H-2Kb was provided by Z. Cai (R.W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute, San Diego, CA). This peptide was synthesized on a synthesizer (431 A; Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA) and purified with C18 reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography.
DNA from the Drosophila melanogaster cell line, SC2, was prepared as described (20). For injection, DNA was used without denaturation. CpG (GCATGACGTTGAGCT) and ZpG (GCATGAZGTTGAGCT, Z = 5'-methyl-C) phosphorothioated ODNs were designed using published sequences (5). The ODNs were synthesized and purified using HPLC by Research Genetics, Inc. (Huntsville, AL). Residual LPS in DNA preparations was measured (Limulus Amebocyte Lysate QCL-1000 kit; BioWhittaker, Walkersville, MD). D. melanogaster DNA preparations contained 0–10 pg of LPS/mg of DNA.
G and antibody production.
Mice were injected subcutaneously with F
G ± adjuvant in the lower portion of both hind limbs in a volume of 50 µl/limb. For injection, F
G was either (a) suspended in saline with soluble insect DNA or ODNs, or (b) mixed with CFA or IFA (mineral oil) plus either insect DNA or ODNs; in each situation, the dose of F
G injected was the same. Specific antibody production was determined by coating 96-well flat-bottomed plates with 2 µg F
G/ well. Serially diluted antiserum were allowed to bind to the plates, washed, and then detected with isotype-specific biotinylated antibodies and streptavidin–horseradish peroxidase (PharMingen, San Diego, CA).
Production.
To measure proliferative responses to F
G, draining (popliteal) LN cells from F
G-primed mice were removed at day 9 after priming and then cultured with the indicated concentration of F
G in 200 µl volumes in 96-well plates using standard tissue culture medium plus FCS (21); in some experiments, B cell–depleted LN cells or purified LN CD4+ cells (21) were used as responders. To measure proliferation, cultures were harvested on day 4 after overnight addition of 1 µCi [3H] thymidine (TdR). To measure IFN-
production, aliquots of culture supernatants were collected on day 2 or 3; IFN-
production was measured with an ELISA assay using anti–IFN-
mAbs from PharMingen.
For adoptive transfer, doses of 2 x 107 unseparated spleen plus LN cells from 2C mice on a B6 background were injected intravenously into normal B6 mice. The recipients were then injected subcutaneously with peptide ± soluble ODNs in both hind limbs. To measure proliferation in vivo, groups of the recipients were given a single injection of 1 mg bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) intraperitoneally at 3, 4, or 5 d after immunization; BrdU incorporation was measured 4 h after BrdU injection.
As described elsewhere (22), cell suspensions were first surface stained for expression of CD8 and the TCR clonotype of 2C cells, detected by 1B2 mAb (23). After fixation, the cells were then stained internally for BrdU incorporation using an anti-BrdU mAb (Becton Dickinson, San Jose, CA). Stained cells were analyzed on a FACScan® flow cytometer.
![]()
Results
Top
Abstract
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
In previous studies, the effects of SssI methylase treatment indicated that the capacity of insect (D. melanogaster) DNA to cause polyclonal activation of B cells was controlled, at least in part, by unmethylated CpG motifs (9). To test whether insect DNA could act as an adjuvant for antigen-specific T cell responses, mice were injected subcutaneously with F
G mixed with insect DNA (100 µg/ mouse); since DNA is highly unstable when injected in vivo, some mice received F
G plus insect DNA suspended in IFA. Control mice received F
G in saline or suspended in CFA or in IFA without DNA.
Priming of mice injected with F
G ± adjuvant was measured by removing the draining LN (DrLN) at 9 d after immunization and culturing LN cell suspensions with or without F
G in vitro. The results of culturing either unseparated LN cells or purified CD4+ cells with F
G are shown in Fig. 1 A. As expected, for both cell populations, in vitro T proliferative responses to F
G were substantial with in vivo priming to F
G in CFA and somewhat lower with priming in IFA. When mice were primed with F
G in saline alone (not shown) or with F
G plus soluble insect DNA (Fig. 1 A), secondary responses to F
G in vitro were virtually undetectable, indicative of minimal immunization. In marked contrast, priming with F
G plus insect DNA suspended in IFA led to strong secondary responses to F
G in vitro. Significantly, these responses were appreciably higher than with priming to F
G in CFA. Similar results occurred for production of IFN-
in vitro (Fig. 1 B) and also for production of specific Ab (see below). As a negative control for insect DNA, we used DNA from nonvertebrates (salmon testes; reference 10). In contrast to insect DNA, salmon DNA in IFA plus F
G was no more immunogenic than IFA plus F
G alone (data not shown).
|
To assess adjuvanticity, mice were primed with F
G plus 50 µg/mouse of CpG or ZpG ODNs suspended either in IFA or saline. As measured by secondary T proliferative responses in vitro to graded concentrations of F
G (Fig. 2 A, left), priming with F
G in IFA was considerably augmented by addition of CpG ODNs; by contrast, addition of ZpG ODNs to IFA had no effect. Thus, for ODNs in IFA, only CpG and not ZpG ODNs had demonstrable adjuvant activity (relative to priming in IFA alone). The results were quite similar for IFN-
production, except that, for this assay, F
G priming with IFA plus ZpG was clearly higher than with IFA alone (Fig. 2 B, left). In general, F
G priming with IFA and CpG ODNs was substantially more effective than priming with CFA, especially for IFN-
production (Fig. 2 B, left, and data not shown).
|
production, priming with CpG ODNs in saline led to much lower responses than with CpG ODNs in IFA (Fig. 2 B). Nevertheless, IFN-
production elicited by ODNs in saline was clearly demonstrable with CpG ODNs, but undetectable with ZpG ODNs (Fig. 2 B, right).
Confirming the results of others (12–15), CpG ODNs acted as a powerful adjuvant for specific Ab production (Fig. 2 C). In saline (Fig. 2 C, left), CpG ODNs augmented both IgM and IgG Ab to F
G; except for IgG1 Ab, ZpG ODNs were much less effective. Addition of IFA considerably augmented the adjuvant activity of CpG (but not ZpG) ODNs, especially for IgG2a (Fig. 2 C, right), IgG2b, and IgG3 (data not shown) Ab. For these isotypes, Ab production elicited by CpG ODNs in IFA was substantially higher than with CFA immunization (Fig. 2 C, right); similar findings occurred with insect DNA in IFA (Fig. 2 C, right). By contrast, CpG ODNs or insect DNA in IFA inhibited the production of IgG1 Ab, relative to immunization with CFA or IFA alone (data not shown). Significantly, the adjuvant activity of CpG ODNs required coinjection with F
G in the same site. Thus, injection of CpG ODNs in the front limbs and F
G in the hind limbs failed to elicit Ab production (Fig. 2 C, left).
Adjuvant Effects of ODNs on TCR Transgenic CD8+ Cells.
Since adjuvants presumably act largely by augmenting the clonal expansion of antigen-specific T cells, we sought direct evidence on this issue by studying the capacity of ODNs to augment proliferation of TCR transgenic T cells to specific peptide in vivo. For these studies we used 2C TCR transgenic mice. For this line, CD8+ T cells have strong reactivity for a synthetic peptide, SIYRYYGL (19), presented by self (Kb) class I molecules. Using 2C mice on a B6 background, the approach taken (24) was to transfer doses of 2 x 107 2C lymphoid cells (pooled from spleen and LN) intravenously into normal B6 mice and then inject the mice subcutaneously with specific peptide ± CpG or ZpG ODNs in saline. To measure T cell proliferation in vivo, groups of the recipients were injected with the DNA precursor, BrdU, at 3, 4, or 5 d after immunization; 4 h after BrdU injection, cell suspensions were stained for surface markers and then, after fixation, for BrdU incorporation. This 4-h pulse approach (22) thus provided an indication of the extent of donor cell proliferation at daily intervals from days 3 through 5. Donor CD8+ cells were detected by staining for expression of CD8 and the 2C TCR clonotype, 1B2.
As shown in Fig. 3 A, left, total numbers of donor CD8+ cells (1B2+ CD8+ cells) in the DrLN were substantially higher after injection of peptide and CpG ODNs than with injection of peptide alone; ZpG ODNs were much less effective. Similar findings applied to donor cell proliferation, i.e., to total numbers of BrdU+ 1B2+ CD8+ cells in the DrLN (Fig. 3 B, left).
|
A rough estimate of the extent of donor T cell proliferation in the whole animal was obtained by calculating total numbers of BrdU+ 1B2+ CD8+ cells in DrLN + MLN + spleen at days 3 through 5. By this parameter, priming with peptide plus CpG ODNs was far more effective than priming with peptide alone (Fig. 3 B, right); priming with peptide plus ZpG ODNs was only slightly better than with peptide alone.
| Discussion |
|---|
|
|
|---|
synthesis, and production of specific Ab. This finding supports the view that the adjuvant activity of CFA is due, at least in part, to the presence of dead bacteria, a source of immunostimulatory DNA (3).
It should be emphasized that insect DNA only displayed adjuvant activity when suspended in mineral oil; in soluble form, insect DNA was ineffective, presumably reflecting rapid degradation by enzymes. In view of this problem, we resorted to the use of phosphorothioate-modified synthetic ODNs, which are comparably resistant to degradation in vivo (5). Except for CpG methylation, the two ODNs studied were identical. Confirming the findings of others (5), preliminary data established that CpG ODNs were highly effective in stimulating B cell proliferation in vitro, whereas ZpG ODNs had minimal activity (our unpublished data). Significantly, this marked difference between CpG and ZpG ODNs also applied to adjuvant activity. Thus, unlike ZpG ODNs, CpG ODNs acted as a strong adjuvant when used to prime mice for T proliferative responses, IFN-
synthesis, and production of specific Ab to F
G. Although the adjuvant activity of CpG ODNs was clearly much higher when suspended in IFA, priming in the presence of soluble CpG ODNs led to quite strong T proliferative responses and low but significant production of specific Ab and IFN-
. Confirming previous findings (12–15), the adjuvant activity of CpG ODNs for Ab production was much more prominent for certain Ig isotypes, e.g., IgG2a, than for others, notably IgG1; similar findings applied to insect DNA. Thus, for synthetic ODNs and DNA, the adjuvant function of CpG motifs appears to be skewed to Th1 function (12–15).
Examining the influence of adjuvants during the early primary response is difficult in normal mice, but relatively easy in TCR transgenic mice. When TCR transgenic T cells are exposed to specific peptide on adoptive transfer, it is well established that a mixture of peptide in CFA leads to a prolonged proliferative response (24); by contrast, injection of peptide alone elicits only transient proliferation followed by rapid elimination of the responding T cells. In line with these findings, the response of 2C CD8+ cells to specific peptide alone was very brief and declined abruptly after day 3. By contrast, supplementing peptide with soluble CpG ODNs augmented and considerably prolonged the proliferative response, indicative of an adjuvant effect.
Rather surprisingly, the proliferative response elicited by peptides plus CpG ODNs involved not only the DrLN but also the spleen. Yet proliferation in MLNs was undetectable. How can this distribution be explained? The simplest possibility in our view is that, in contrast to peptide alone, exposure to peptide plus ODNs in the DrLN signaled the responding T cells to survive and make their way into the circulation, thus reaching the spleen. The failure of the cells to reach MLNs may have reflected that antigen activation of T cells often leads to downregulation of the LN homing receptor, CD62L (25), thus preventing migration to LN but not to spleen. In fact, in more recent studies, a high proportion (50%) of the 1B2+ CD8+ cells in the spleen on day 4 were CD62Llo (data not shown); such downregulation of CD62L did not apply to MLNs and, in spleen, was only seen with injection of peptide plus CpG ODNs.
How DNA and ODNs potentiate clonal expansion of antigen-specific T cells in vivo is still unclear. Others have postulated that ODNs act directly on T cells and provide a second signal for cells subjected to TCR ligation (12). The alternative possibility is that ODNs function largely by potentiating APC function, e.g., by inducing synthesis of cytokines such as IL-1, TNF-
, and IL-6 (6, 7, 26, 27), thus causing migration of APCs to DrLN (28), and perhaps also by stimulating upregulation of costimulatory molecules on APC precursors, e.g., by IFN-I (15, 29, and our unpublished data). However, direct evidence on the mechanism of action of ODNs under in vivo conditions is still unavailable.
| Acknowledgments |
|---|
This work was supported by grants CA38355, CA25803, AI21487, AI32068, AI07244, and AG01743 from the United States Public Health Service. H. Kishimoto is the recipient of a fellowship from the Cancer Research Institute. This work has publication No. 11253-IMM from the Scripps Research Institute.
Submitted: 1 December 1997
Revised: 29 January 1998
| References |
|---|
|
|
|---|
1 Pisetsky DS. Immune activation by bacterial DNA: a new genetic code, Immunity, 1996, 5, 303–310.[Medline]
2 Krieg AM. CpG DNA: a pathogenic factor in systemic lupus erythematosus? , J Clin Immunol, 1995, 15, 284–292.[Medline]
3 Yamamoto S, Yamamoto T, Shimada S, Kuramoto E, Yano O, Kataoka T & Tokunaga T. DNA from bacteria, but not from vertebrates, induces interferons, activates natural killer cells and inhibits tumor growth, Microbiol Immunol, 1992, 36, 983–997.[Medline]
4 Messina JP, Gilkeson GS & Pisetsky DS. Stimulation of in vitro murine lymphocyte proliferation by bacterial DNA, J Immunol, 1991, 147, 1759–1764.[Abstract]
5 Krieg AM, Yi AK, Matson S, Waldschmidt TJ, Bishop GA, Teasdale R, Koretzky GA & Klinman DM. CpG motifs in bacterial DNA trigger direct B-cell activation, Nature, 1995, 374, 546–549.[Medline]
6 Halpern MD, Kurlander RJ & Pisetsky DS. Bacterial DNA induces murine interferon-
production by stimulation of interleukin-12 and tumor necrosis factor-
, Cell Immunol, 1996, 167, 72–78.[Medline]
7 Stacey KJ, Sweet MJ & Hume DA. Macrophages ingest and are activated by bacterial DNA, J Immunol, 1996, 157, 2116–2122.[Abstract]
8 Sparwasser T, Miethke T, Lipford G, Borschert K, Hacker H, Heeg K & Wagner H. Bacterial DNA causes septic shock, Nature, 1997, 386, 336–337.[Medline]
9 Sun S, Cai Z, Langlade-Demoyen P, Kosaka H, Brunmark A, Jackson MR, Peterson PA & Sprent J. Dual function of Drosophila cells as APC for naive CD8+T cells: implications for tumor immunotherapy, Immunity, 1996, 4, 555–564.[Medline]
10 Sun S, Beard C, Jaenisch R, Jones P & Sprent J. Mitogenicity of DNA from different organisms for murine B cells, J Immunol, 1997, 159, 3119–3125.[Abstract]
11 Tokunaga T, Yano O, Kuramoto E, Kimura Y, Yamamoto T, Kataoka T & Yamamoto S. Synthetic oligonucleotides with particular base sequences from the cDNA encoding proteins of Mycobacterium bovisBCG induce interferons and activate natural killer cells, Microbiol Immunol, 1992, 36, 55–66.[Medline]
12 Lipford GB, Bauer M, Blank C, Reiter R, Wagner H & Heeg K. CpG-containing synthetic oligonucleotides promote B and cytotoxic T cell responses to protein antigen: a new class of vaccine adjuvants, Eur J Immunol, 1997, 27, 2340–2344.[Medline]
13 Roman M, Martin-Orozco E, Goodman JS, Nguyen M-D, Sato Y, Ronaghy A, Kornbluth RS, Richman DD, Carson DA & Raz E. Immunostimulatory DNA sequences function as T helper-1–promoting adjuvants, Nat Med, 1997, 3, 849–854.[Medline]
14 Chu RS, Targoni OS, Krieg AM, Lehman PV & Harding CV. CpG oligodeoxynucleotides act as adjuvants that switch on T helper 1 (Th1) immunity, J Exp Med, 1997, 186, 1623–1631.
15 Davis HL, Weeranta R, Walsschmidt TJ, Tygrett L, Schorr J & Krieg AM. CpG DNA is a potent enhancer of specific immunity in mice immunized with recombinant hepatitis B surface antigen, J Immunol, 1998, 160, 870–876.
16 Donnelly JJ, Ulmer JB, Shiver JW & Liu MA. DNA Vaccines, Annu Rev Immunol, 1997, 15, 617–648.[Medline]
17 Sato Y, Roman M, Tighe H, Lee D, Corr M, Nguyen M-D, Silverman GJ, Lotz M, Carson DA & Raz E. Immunostimulatory DNA sequences necessary for effective intradermal gene immunization, Science, 1996, 273, 352–354.[Abstract]
18 Klinman DM, Yamshchikov G & Ishigatsubo Y. Contribution of CpG motifs to the immunogenicity of DNA vaccines, J Immunol, 1997, 158, 3635–3639.[Abstract]
19 Udaka K, Wiesmuller K-H, Kienle S, Jung G & Walden P. Self-MHC–restricted peptides recognized by an alloreactive T lymphocyte clone, J Immunol, 1996, 157, 670–678.[Abstract]
20 Strauss WM. Preparation of genomic DNA from mammalian tissue, Curr Prot Mol Biol, 1990, 1, 2.2.1–2.2.3.
21 Sprent J & Schaefer M. Properties of purified T cell subsets. I. In vitro responses to class I vs. class II H-2 alloantigens, J Exp Med, 1985, 162, 2068–2088.
22 Tough DF, Borrow P & Sprent J. Induction of bystander T cell proliferation by viruses and type I interferon in vivo, Science, 1996, 272, 1947–1950.[Abstract]
23 Kranz DM, Sherman DH, Sitkovsky MV, Pasternack MS & Eisen HN. Immunoprecipitation of cell surface structures of cloned cytotoxic T lymphocytes by clone-specific antisera, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 1984, 81, 573–577.
24 Kearney ER, Pape KA, Loh DY & Jenkins MK. Visualization of peptide-specific T cell immunity and peripheral tolerance induction in vivo, Immunity, 1994, 1, 327–339.[Medline]
25 Picker LJ & Butcher EC. Physiological and molecular mechanisms of lymphocyte homing, Annu Rev Immunol, 1992, 10, 561–591.[Medline]
26 Klinman DM, Yi A-K, Beaucage SL, Conover J & Krieg AM. CpG motifs present in bacterial DNA rapidly induce lymphocytes to secrete interleukin 6, interleukin 12, and interferon
, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 1996, 93, 2879–2883.
27 Yi A-K, Klinman DM, Martin TL, Matson S & Krieg AM. Rapid immune activation by CpG motifs in bacterial DNA. Systemic induction of IL-6 transcription through an antioxidant-sensitive pathway, J Immunol, 1996, 157, 5394–5402.[Abstract]
28 Cumberbatch M, Dearman RJ & Kimber I. Langerhans cells require signals from both tumor necrosis factor-
and interleukin-1β for migration, Immunology, 1997, 92, 388–395.[Medline]
29 Chakrabarti D, Hultgren B & Stewart TA. IFN-
induced autoimmune T cells through the induction of intracellular adhesion molecule-1 and B7.2, J Immunol, 1996, 157, 522–528.[Abstract]
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TABLE OF CONTENTS |
|