TCR peptide vaccination in multiple sclerosis: Boosting a deficient natural regulatory network that may involve TCR-specific CD4+CD25+ Treg cells

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

40 Scopus citations

Abstract

Vaccination with self peptides contained within T cell receptor (TCR) chains, expressed by pathogenic Th1 cells can induce a second set of regulatory T cells that can reverse paralysis in rodents with experimental encephalomyelitis, and similarly, may have the potential to regulate myelin-reactive Th1 cells in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). In this review, we discuss our recent discovery that TCR-reactive T cells generally possess classical inhibitory activity associated with Treg cells. CD4+CD25+ TCR-reactive T cells can inhibit CD4+CD25-indicator cells stimulated with anti-CD3/anti-CD28 antibody in a dose-dependent and cell-contact-dependent manner. Additionally, CD4+CD25+ T cells from blood of healthy control donors have significant responses to a pool of discriminatory TCR pepticles, including BV10S1P, BV19S20, BV13S7, BV12S2A2T, BV11S1A1T, BV21S3A1T, AV15S1, and BV12S1A1N1. Patients with MS have varying degrees of deficient responses to TCR peptides, and by association, a defect in Trag cell function as well. TCR peptide vaccination using a new tripeptide mixture emulsified in IFA produced strong T cell responses in 100% of MS recipients, a dramatic improvement over previous vaccines given i.d. in saline that induced TCR-reactive T cell responses in about 50% of recipients. Responders to vaccination had a tendency towards reduced MRI lesions, and an early indication of enhanced Treg activity mediated by TCR-reactive T cells that could provide suppression of target as well as bystander T cells, These data provide a strong foundation for future TCR vaccination studies that will critically test the ability of the tripeptide mixture to induce significantly enhanced Treg activity and possible clinical and MRI benefits in vivo.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)217-229
Number of pages13
JournalCurrent Drug Targets: Inflammation and Allergy
Volume4
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2005

Keywords

  • CDR2 peptides
  • Multiple sclerosis
  • Regulatory T cells
  • T cell receptor

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Immunology and Allergy
  • Immunology
  • Pharmacology

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