Tumor elimination requires simultaneous expression of both class I and II neo-epitopes

The most tumors express mutant epitopes that could be detected by T cells. According to current paradigm, CD4+ T cells provides help to CD8+ T cells that in turn attack tumors. As tumor cells ordinarily express class I recognized by CD8+ T cells but not class II molecules recognized by CD4+ T cells, primary focus on CD8+ T cell epitopes made a lot of sense. But what about CD4+ T cell 'help' to CD8 T cells? 

Indeed, a new 'classically-done' immunology study from Robert Schreiber's lab clearly showed that irrespective class II expression, tumor cells must express both CD8+ and CD4+ T cell neo-epitopes to achieve efficient local tumor control following immunotherapy.

As a starting point, they used nonimmunogenic oncogene-driven KP9025 sarcoma cells (KP), which lack mutational neoantigens. Next they re-expressed in KP cells 2 mutant epitopes, one for class I, mLAMA4, and another for class II, mITGB1 (identified using a hidden Markov model (HMM)-based MHC binding predictor the authors claim is better than other available algorithms). 

 

A mutant but not wild-type version of ITGB1 was detected by CD4+ TILs.

  

Next, the authors showed that only KP tumors expressing both neo-epitopes but not single expressors, could be eliminated by T cells following immunotherapy.

  

As expected, presence of CD4+ T cell epitope enhanced CD8+ T cell response.

Interestingly, both class I and II  neo-epitopes must be expressed by the same tumor to mediate protection when used as immunized agents (mixing of single expressor tumors was not enough).

And notably, expression of both class I and II neo-epitopes were necessary to mediate efficient local tumor control (single expressor tumors were resistant against CD8+ or CD4+  T cells)

In summary, this is a simple, easy to follow experments that indicate the authors' thought process.  It shows that CD4+ T cells 'help' to CD8+ T cells are required both at priming and as well as at effector stage. It is not clear if it is simply a quantitative or rather qualitative issue. It is not known either whether CD4+ T cells do something directly against tumor beyond simply helping CD8+ T cells here. 

posted by David Usharauli

The auto-reactive CD4+ T cells provide IL-2 to proto-Tregs in the thymus

The T cells expressing the transcription factor Foxp3 called regulatory T cells, abbreviated as Tregs, are the most important cell type in the immune system. Without them, the whole immune system goes haywire. As a result, the body simply dies in a very short time.

The Tregs develop in the thymus and require two things: TCR signaling and IL-2. The thymus expresses a very diverse set of epitopes including that from peripheral tissues such as the pancreas or prostate. The high-affinity interaction between TCR and epitope/MHC II makes proto-Treg sensitive to local IL-2, a necessary step to complete a Treg formation loop.

But what cell provides that crucial IL-2 to proto-Tregs? There hasn't been any consensus with this regard but a new paper in the Journal of Experimental Medicine from Sasha Rudensky's lab indicates that it is mature CD4+ T cells and CD25+Foxp3- CD4+ single-positive (SP) T cells that are the main source of thymic IL-2 required for Treg development.

For this study, they used an IL-2 reporter mouse wherein cells expressing or having a history of the expression of IL-2 are genetically labeled and analyzed. They found that IL-2 expression was restricted to TCRbeta expressing CD4+ population.

Out of CD4+ T cells, the most IL-2 was made by mature CD4 SP and CD25+Foxp3- CD4+ T cell population. Of note, CD25+Foxp3- T cell population contains proto-Tregs.

Interestingly, the authors also detected mature Tregs with the history of IL-2 expression. It implies that bifurcation between Tregs versus IL-2 producer is a stochastic process.

As expected, TCR signaling together with IL-2 was essential for Treg formation. A "bystander" effect on Foxp3 upregulation on antigen-independent proto-Tregs (Vbeta 8- T cells) could be explained by the fact that these T cells were likely TCR activated in vivo before harvesting for ex vivo experimentation.

Based on these data, the authors suggested the following model: among mature SP CD4 T cells, a small pool produces IL-2 that in the context of high-affinity TCR/epitope interaction and CD25 upregulation promotes Foxp3+ Treg formation either autocrine or paracrine manner. Since the thymus is expressing self epitopes we can conclude that those IL-2 producing T cells are auto-reactive T cells.

The following questions remain unanswered:

1. What determines Treg, IL-2-producer or deletion pathways? All three options are open for high-affinity TCR+ CD4 SP cells.

2. Do TCR specificity overlaps between Tregs and IL-2 producers?

3. What cells provide IL-2 to Tregs in the periphery?

4. Is IL-2 delivery TCR/epitope-specific or non-specific event?


We have recently published a new model, called SPIRAL, that provides answers to these questions. The SPIRAL is based on the principle of epitope cross-reactivity.


Shared TCR epitope cross-reactivity could permit dyads of Foxp3+ regulatory and IL-2-producing T cell precursors to escape thymic purge 


posted by David Usharauli