Uncoupling protein 2 regulates metabolic reprogramming and fate of antigen-stimulated CD8+ T cells.

Adoptive cell therapy (ACT) employing ex vivo-generated tumor antigen-specific CD8+ T cells shows tumor efficacy when the transferred cells possess both effector and memory functions. New strategies based on understanding of mechanisms that balance CD8+ T cell differentiation toward effector and memory responses are highly desirable. Emerging information confirms a central role for antigen-induced metabolic reprogramming in CD8+ T cell differentiation and clonal expansion. The mitochondrial protein uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) is induced by antigen stimulation of CD8+ T cells; however, its role in metabolic reprogramming underlying differentiation and clonal expansion has not been reported. Employing genetic (siRNA) and pharmacologic (Genipin) approaches, we note that antigen-induced UCP2 expression reduces glycolysis, fatty acid synthesis and production of reactive oxygen species to balance differentiation with survival of effector CD8+ T cells. Inhibition of UCP2 promotes CD8+ T cell terminal differentiation into short-lived effector cells (CD62L(lo)KLRG1(Hi)IFNγ(Hi)) that undergo clonal contraction. These findings are the first to reveal a role for antigen-induced UCP2 expression in balancing CD8+ T cell differentiation and survival. Targeting UCP2 to regulate metabolic reprogramming of CD8+ T cells is an attractive new approach to augment efficacy of tumor therapy by ACT.

ß-Catenin in dendritic cells exerts opposite functions in cross-priming and maintenance of CD8+ T cells through regulation of IL-10.

Recent studies have demonstrated that ß-catenin in DCs serves as a key mediator in promoting both CD4(+) and CD8(+) T-cell tolerance, although how ß-catenin exerts its functions remains incompletely understood. Here we report that activation of ß-catenin in DCs inhibits cross-priming of CD8(+) T cells by up-regulating mTOR-dependent IL-10, suggesting blocking ß-catenin/mTOR/IL-10 signaling as a viable approach to augment CD8(+) T-cell immunity. However, vaccination of DC-ß-catenin(-/-) (CD11c-specific deletion of ß-catenin) mice surprisingly failed to protect them against tumor challenge. Further studies revealed that DC-ß-catenin(-/-) mice were deficient in generating CD8(+) T-cell immunity despite normal clonal expansion, likely due to impaired IL-10 production by ß-catenin(-/-) DCs. Deletion of ß-catenin in DCs or blocking IL-10 after clonal expansion similarly led to reduced CD8(+) T cells, suggesting that ß-catenin in DCs plays a positive role in CD8(+) T-cell maintenance postclonal expansion through IL-10. Thus, our study has not only identified mTOR/IL-10 as a previously unidentified mechanism for ß-catenin-dependent inhibition of cross-priming, but also uncovered an unexpected positive role that ß-catenin plays in maintenance of CD8(+) T cells. Despite ß-catenin's opposite functions in regulating CD8(+) T-cell responses, selectively blocking ß-catenin with a pharmacological inhibitor during priming phase augmented DC vaccine-induced CD8(+) T-cell immunity and improved antitumor efficacy, suggesting manipulating ß-catenin signaling as a feasible therapeutic strategy to improve DC vaccine efficacy.

ß-catenin mediates tumor-induced immunosuppression by inhibiting cross-priming of CD8⁺ T cells.

Whereas CD8⁺ T cells are essential for anti-tumor immunity, tumors often evade CD8⁺ T cell surveillance by immunosuppression. As the initiators of antigen-specific immune responses, DCs are likely to play a central role in regulating the balance between immunity and tolerance to tumor antigens and are specialized in their ability to cross-present exogenous tumor antigens on MHC class I molecules to initiate CD8⁺ T cell immunity. However, it remains unclear whether and how tumors modulate DC functions to suppress CD8⁺ T cell responses. We have shown previously that ß-catenin signaling in DCs promotes DC-mediated CD8⁺ T cell tolerance. Here, we tested the hypothesis that ß-catenin in DCs mediates tumor-induced suppression of CD8⁺ T cell immunity by inhibiting the ability of DCs in cross-priming. ß-Catenin was activated in DCs by multiple tumors in vivo and in vitro. B16 melanoma-bearing mice, when vaccinated with DC-targeting anti-DEC-205 mAb fused with tumor antigens, exhibited dampened CD8⁺ immunity, similar to DC-ß-catenin(active) mice. DCs from DC-ß-catenin(active) and tumor-bearing mice were deficient in cross-priming, and antigen-specific CD8⁺ T cells primed in these mice resulted in dampened CD8⁺ memory responses. Importantly, DC-ß-catenin⁻/⁻ mice completely abrogate tumor-mediated inhibition of cross-priming, suggesting that tumor-induced inhibition of cross-priming is dependent on ß-catenin. Finally, enhancing cross-priming at the priming or recall phase rescued ß-catenin-suppressed CD8⁺ immunity in DC-ß-catenin(active) and tumor-bearing mice. Thus, ß-catenin-mediated inhibition of cross-priming represents a new and potentially general mechanism that tumors employ to achieve immunosuppression.

A unique form of haptoglobin produced by murine hematopoietic cells supports B-cell survival, differentiation and immune response.

Haptoglobin (Hp), an acute phase reactant and major hemoglobin-binding protein, has a unique role in host immunity. Previously, we demonstrated that Hp-deficient C57BL/6J mice exhibit stunted development of mature T- and B-cells resulting in markedly lower levels of antigen-specific IgG. The current study identified leukocyte-derived pro-Hp as a relevant mediator of an optimal immune response. Reconstitution of Hp-/- mice with Hp+/+ bone marrow restored normal immune response to ovalbumin. Furthermore, transplanting a mixture of bone marrow-derived from B-cell-deficient and Hp-deficient mice into Rag1-/-/Hp+/+ recipients resulted in mice with a defective immune response similar to Hp-/- mice. This suggests that Hp generated by the B-cell compartment, rather than by the liver, is functionally contributing to a normal immune response. Leukocytes isolated from the spleen express Hp and release a non-proteolytically processed pro-Hp that uniquely differed from liver-derived Hp by not binding to hemoglobin. While addition of purified plasma Hp to cultured B-cells did not alter responses, pro-Hp isolated from splenocytes enhanced cellular proliferation and production of IgG. Collectively, the comparison of wild-type and Hp-deficient mice suggests a novel regulatory activity for lymphocyte-derived Hp, including Hp produced by B-cells themselves, that supports in vivo survival and functional differentiation of the B-cells to ensure an optimal immune response.

Rapamycin: A rheostat for CD8(+) T-cell-mediated tumor therapy.

Vaccines that generate Ag-specific CD8(+) T-cell responses of appropriate quality, magnitude and duration are highly desirable. The ability of mTOR to regulate CD8(+) T-cell functional differentiation must be exploited for clinical benefit. In a recent paper, we report that varying the regimen of rapamycin administration regulates viral vaccine-induced CD8(+) T-cell responses for tumor immunity. These observations validate the use of rapamycin in vaccination strategies and demonstrate the efficacy of memory CD8(+) T-cell responses for tumor immunity.

Transcription factor Foxo1 represses T-bet-mediated effector functions and promotes memory CD8(+) T cell differentiation.

The evolutionary conserved Foxo transcription factors are important regulators of quiescence and longevity. Although, Foxo1 is known to be important in regulating CD8(+) T cell trafficking and homeostasis, its role in functional differentiation of antigen-stimulated CD8(+) T cells is unclear. Herein, we demonstrate that inactivation of Foxo1 was essential for instructing T-bet transcription factor-mediated effector differentiation of CD8(+) T cells. The Foxo1 inactivation was dependent on mTORC1 kinase, given that blockade of mTORC1 abrogated mTORC2-mediated Akt (Ser473) kinase phosphorylation, resulting in Foxo1-dependent switch from T-bet to Eomesodermin transcription factor activation and increase in memory precursors. Silencing Foxo1 ablated interleukin-12- and rapamycin-enhanced CD8(+) T cell memory responses and restored T-bet-mediated effector functions. These results demonstrate an essential role of Foxo1 in actively repressing effector or terminal differentiation processes to promote memory CD8(+) T cell development and identify the functionally diverse mechanisms utilized by Foxo1 to promote quiescence and longevity.

Regulating mammalian target of rapamycin to tune vaccination-induced CD8(+) T cell responses for tumor immunity.

Vaccine strategies aimed at generating CD8(+) T cell memory responses are likely to show augmented efficacy against chronic challenges like tumor. The abundance in variety of memory CD8(+) T cells behooves development of vaccine strategies that generate distinct memory responses and evaluate them for tumor efficacy. In this study, we demonstrate the ability of a variety of rapamycin treatment regimens to regulate virus vaccination-induced CD8(+) T cell memory responses and tumor efficacy. Strikingly, a short course of high-dose, but not low-dose, rapamycin treatment transiently blocks viral vaccination-induced mammalian target of rapamycin activity in CD8(+) T cells favoring persistence and Ag-recall responses over type 1 effector maturation; however, prolonged high-dose rapamycin administration abrogated memory responses. Furthermore, a short course of high-dose rapamycin treatment generated CD8(+) T cell memory responses that were independent of IL-15 and IL-7 and were programmed early for sustenance and greater tumor efficacy. These results demonstrate the impact a regimen of rapamycin treatment has on vaccine-induced CD8(+) T cell responses and indicates that judicious application of rapamycin can augment vaccine efficacy for chronic challenges.

A central role for mTOR kinase in homeostatic proliferation induced CD8+ T cell memory and tumor immunity.

The cell-intrinsic mechanisms guiding naive CD8+ T cells for clonal expansion and memory generation via homeostatic proliferation (HP) are unclear. Here, we have shown that HP of naive CD8+ T cells requires IL-7-, but not IL-15-induced mTOR kinase activation. HP-induced mTOR enhances transcription factor T-bet for functional maturation and CD122 expression, which sensitizes for an IL-15-dependent memory transition by favoring transcription factor Eomesodermin over T-bet. Inhibition of mTOR blocks T-bet and CD122 expression but preserves memory in an IL-15-independent manner by promoting Eomesodermin expression. The ability of rapamycin to augment HP-induced memory was cell-intrinsic given that silencing mTOR in CD8+ T cells generated identical outcomes. Strikingly, HP-induced CD8+ T cell memory generated by IL-15-dependent or -independent mechanisms demonstrated identical tumor efficacy. These results indicate a central role for mTOR in HP-induced CD8+ T cell responses and demonstrate the importance for CD8+ memory in HP-induced tumor efficacy.

Fine-tuning CD8(+) T cell functional responses: mTOR acts as a rheostat for regulating CD8(+) T cell proliferation, survival and differentiation?

Naïve CD8(+) T cells are instructed by antigen, co-stimulatory molecules and cytokines to undergo proliferation, clonal expansion and differentiation for effector and memory functions. The integration of extracellular instructions induces coordinated signaling cascades and transcriptional programs to determine CD8(+) T cell functional fate. Although, an important role for the energy sensitive kinase-mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) in regulating T cell proliferation and cell survival instep with cellular metabolic status has been demonstrated, emerging information indicates that mTOR also acts as a critical regulator of effector and memory functional fates in CD8(+) T cells. Herein, we discuss the pathways by which cellular metabolism regulates proliferation, survival and functional differentiation of CD8(+) T cells and focus on the role of mTOR as the rheostat that strikes a balance between effector and memory differentiation of CD8(+) T cells for enabling adaptive host immunity.

NY-ESO-1 protein glycosylated by yeast induces enhanced immune responses.

Vaccine strategies that target dendritic cells to elicit potent cellular immunity are the subject of intense research. Here we report that the genetically engineered yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, expressing the full-length tumour-associated antigen NY-ESO-1, is a versatile host for protein production. Exposing dendritic cells (DCs) to soluble NY-ESO-1 protein linked to the yeast a-agglutinin 2 protein (Aga2p) protein resulted in protein uptake, processing and MHC class I cross-presentation of NY-ESO-1-derived peptides. The process of antigen uptake and cross-presentation was dependent on the glycosylation pattern of NY-ESO-1-Aga2p protein and the presence of accessible mannose receptors. In addition, NY-ESO-1-Aga2p protein uptake by dendritic cells resulted in recognition by HLA-DP4 NY-ESO-1-specific CD4(+) T cells, indicating MHC class II presentation. Finally, vaccination of mice with yeast-derived NY-ESO-1-Aga2p protein led to an enhanced humoral and cellular immune response, when compared to the bacterially expressed NY-ESO-1 protein. Together, these data demonstrate that yeast-derived full-length NY-ESO-1-Aga2p protein is processed and presented efficiently by MHC class I and II complexes and warrants clinical trials to determine the potential value of S. cerevisiae as a host for cancer vaccine development.

The mTOR kinase determines effector versus memory CD8+ T cell fate by regulating the expression of transcription factors T-bet and Eomesodermin.

The mechanisms underpinning integration of instructions that program naive CD8+ T cells for effector and/or memory differentiation are not well understood. Herein, we demonstrate that interleukin-12 (IL-12) enhanced and sustained antigen and costimulatory molecule (B7.1)-induced mTOR kinase activity in naive CD8+ (OT-I) T cells via phosphoinositide 3-kinase and STAT4 transcription factor pathways. Blocking mTOR activity by rapamycin reversed IL-12-induced effector functions because of loss of persistent expression of the transcription factor T-bet. Rapamycin treatment of IL-12-conditioned OT-I cells promoted persistent Eomesodermin expression and produced memory cell precursors that demonstrated enhanced sustenance and antigen-recall responses upon adoptive transfer. The memory cell precursors showed greater tumor efficacy than IL-12-conditioned effector OT-I cells. These results identify mTOR as the central regulator of transcriptional programs that determine effector and/or memory cell fates in CD8+ T cells. Targeting mTOR activity offers new opportunities to regulate CD8+ T cell-mediated immunity.

Antigen-induced Erk1/2 activation regulates Ets-1-mediated sensitization of CD8+ T cells for IL-12 responses.

The presence of IL-12 during antigen stimulation instructs naive CD8+ T cells for long-term effector responses, but their mechanisms of collaboration are not understood completely. Herein, we report that CD8+ T cells (OT-I T cells) stimulated with antigen for a longer duration show enhanced sensitization to IL-12 as a result of Erk1/2-dependent, increased Ets-1 phosphorylation and subsequent increases in IL-12Rbeta2 expression. Correspondingly, naive OT-I T cells stimulated by antigen for a longer duration in the presence of IL-12, irrespective of frequency of APCs, show robust effector maturation and mount long-term antigen-recall responses upon adoptive transfer. These results identify the role of antigen strength-dependent Erk1/2 activation for Ets-1-mediated collaboration with IL-12 in CD8+ T cells.

Regulating functional cell fates in CD8 T cells.

The attributes of specificity and memory enable CD8(+) T cells to provide long-lasting protection against a variety of challenges. Although, the importance of CD8(+) T cells for protection against intracellular infections and transformation is well-established, the functional type; effector phenotypes (Tc1, Tc2, Tc17 and/or Tcreg) and/or memory (effector or central), of CD8(+) T cells most desirable for tumor immunity is not established. To determine the tumor efficacy of various effector types and/or memory CD8 T cells, it is imperative to better understand intrinsic and extrinsic factors that regulate CD8(+) T cell differentiation and use this information to generate and test distinct functional cell types in tumor models. The focus of our laboratory investigations is to identify the extrinsic factors such as antigen strength, co-stimulatory molecules, cytokines, and small molecule modifiers that regulate intrinsic programs for various effector and/or memory cell fate in antigen specific CD8 T cells. The use of this information to generate immunity in murine tumor models has facilitated development of new adoptive cell transfer (ACT) as well as immunization strategies for cancer treatment.

Angiostatic activity of the antitumor cytokine interleukin-21.

Interleukin-21 (IL-21) is a recently described immunoregulatory cytokine. It has been identified as a very potent immunotherapeutic agent in several cancer types in animal models, and clinical studies are ongoing. IL-21 belongs to the type I cytokine family of which other members, ie, IL-2, IL-15, and IL-4, have been shown to exert activities on vascular endothelial cells (ECs). We hypothesized that IL-21, in addition to inducing the antitumor immune response, also inhibits tumor angiogenesis. In vitro experiments showed a decrease of proliferation and sprouting of activated ECs after IL-21 treatment. We found that the IL-21 receptor is expressed on vascular ECs. Furthermore, in vivo studies in the chorioallantoic membrane of the chick embryo and in mouse tumors demonstrated that IL-21 treatment disturbs vessel architecture and negatively affects vessel outgrowth. Our results also confirm the earlier suggested angiostatic potential of IL-2 in vitro and in vivo. The angiostatic effect of IL-21 is confirmed by the decrease in expression of angiogenesis-related genes. Interestingly, IL-21 treatment of ECs leads to a decrease of Stat3 phosphorylation. Our research shows that IL-21 is a very powerful antitumor compound that combines the induction of an effective antitumor immune response with inhibition of tumor angiogenesis.

The acute phase protein haptoglobin regulates host immunity.

The contribution of acute phase plasma proteins to host immune responses remains poorly characterized. To better understand the role of the acute phase reactant and major hemoglobin-binding protein haptoglobin (Hp) on the function of immune cells, we generated Hp-deficient C57BL/6J mice. These mice exhibit stunted development of lymphoid organs associated with lower counts of mature T and B cells in the blood and secondary lymphoid compartments. Moreover, these mice show markedly reduced adaptive immune responses as represented by reduced accumulation of IgG antibody after immunization with adjuvant and nominal antigen, abrogation of Th1-dominated delayed-type hypersensitivity reaction, loss of mitogenic responses mounted by T cells, and reduced T cell responses conveyed by APCs. Collectively, these defects are in agreement with the observations that Hp-deficient mice are not capable of generating a recall response or deterring a Salmonella infection as well as failing to generate tumor antigen-specific responses. The administration of Hp to lymphocytes in tissue culture partially ameliorates these functional defects, lending further support to our contention that the acute phase response protein Hp has the ability to regulate immune cell responses and host immunity. The phenotype of Hp-deficient mice suggests a major regulatory activity for Hp in supporting proliferation and functional differentiation of B and T cells as part of homeostasis and in response to antigen stimulation.

Recognition of naturally processed and ovarian cancer reactive CD8+ T cell epitopes within a promiscuous HLA class II T-helper region of NY-ESO-1.

NY-ESO-1 is frequently expressed in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) and elicits spontaneous humoral and cellular immune responses in a proportion of EOC patients. The identification of NY-ESO-1 peptide epitopes with dual HLA-class I and class II specificities might be useful in vaccination strategies for generating cognate CD4+ T cell help to augment CD8+ T cell responses. Here, we describe two novel NY-ESO-1-derived MHC class I epitopes from EOC patients with spontaneous humoral immune response to NY-ESO-1. CD8+ T cells derived from NY-ESO-1 seropositive EOC patients were presensitized with a recombinant adenovirus encoding NY-ESO-1or pooled overlapping peptides. These epitopes, ESO127-136 presented by HLA-A68 molecule, and ESO127-135 restricted by HLA-Cw15 allele, are located within ESO119-143, a promiscuous HLA-class II region containing epitopes that bind to multiple HLA-DR alleles. The novel epitopes were naturally processed by APC or naturally presented by tumor cell lines. In addition, these epitopes induced NY-ESO-1-specific CTL in NY-ESO-1 seropositive EOC patients. Together, the results indicate that ESO119-143 epitope has dual HLA classes I and II specificities, and represents a potential vaccine candidate in a large number of cancer patients.

IL-12-programmed long-term CD8+ T cell responses require STAT4.

Immunological adjuvants activate innate immune cells for Ag presentation and elicitation of cytokines like IL-12 that promote T cell expansion and effector differentiation. An important but elusive aim for most immunization strategies is to produce memory T cells that provide durable immunity. Recent evidence demonstrates that the context of Ag presentation instructionally programs T cells for short- and long-term responses. However, the role and mechanisms by which cytokines like IL-12 condition CD8 T cells for long-term responses remain relatively uncharacterized. In this study, we show that brief exposure (20 h) of naive TCR-transgenic CD8 cells to IL-12 during Ag stimulation leads to transient phosphorylation of STAT4 for robust effector differentiation. Moreover, the IL-12-induced STAT4 engenders greater clonal expansion of the Ag-activated CD8 cells by regulating the expression of the transcriptional factor Bcl3- and Bcl2-related genes that promote survival of Ag-activated CD8 cells. Remarkably, the IL-12-conditioned CD8 T cells demonstrate increased sensitivity to IL-7 and IL-15, whereby they are rendered "fit" for homeostatic self-renewal as well as augmented CD4-dependent recall responses that are effective at controlling Salmonella infection in vivo. This information provides new insights into mechanisms by which IL-12 conditions CD8 T cells for long-term immunity, which is likely to benefit development of new strategies for the use of IL-12 in infectious diseases and cancer.

Aspergillus fumigatus extract differentially regulates antigen-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses to promote host immunity.

Invasive aspergillosis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the severely immunocompromised. The paucity of information about the mechanisms by which Aspergillus-derived factors regulate antigen-specific T cell responses in vivo poses a significant hurdle for devising effective immunization strategies to treat or prevent aspergillosis. By monitoring adoptively transferred T cell receptor transgenic, naive CD4+ (OT-II) and CD8+ (OT-I) T cells specific for distinct peptides of a nominal antigen, chicken ovalbumin (OVA), we demonstrate that sensitization with Aspergillus fumigatus (Af) extract plus OVA protein considerably enhances OT-I and OT-II T cell activation, which results in clonal expansion, primarily as a result of increased proliferation. The sensitization provided by Af extract promotes OT-I expansion accompanied by differentiation into interferon-gamma-producing cytotoxic cells. It is surprising that no effector differentiation of the induced OT-II response was observed. Moreover, the Af extract-induced OT-I and OT-II T cell expansion was transient, as considerable contraction in the numbers of detectable OT-I and OT-II T cells was evidenced by Day 10. In agreement with these observations, sensitization with Af extract plus OVA marginally promoted host immunity against an OVA-expressing thymoma (E.G7) challenge, and the protection was enhanced by resensitization with Af extract and OVA. Our results demonstrate the ability of Af extract to differentially regulate antigen-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses, resulting in limited augmentation of host immunity. This information suggests that strategies to target CD4+ T cell effector maturation may promote host immunity to Aspergillus and unexpectedly demonstrates the use for Af extract as a CD8+ T cell adjuvant.

Increased level and longevity of protective immune responses induced by DNA vaccine expressing the HIV-1 Env glycoprotein when combined with IL-21 and IL-15 gene delivery.

We investigated the ability of a plasmid-derived IL-21 delivered alone or in combination with the IL-15 gene to regulate immune responses to the HIV-1 envelope (Env) glycoprotein induced by DNA vaccination. Mice were injected with the gp140DeltaCFI(HXB2/89.6) vector expressing a modified Env glycoprotein with C-terminal mutations intended to mimic a fusion intermediate, in which the most divergent region encoding the variable V1, V2, and V3 domains of CXCR4-tropic HxB2 virus was replaced with the dual-tropic 89.6 viral strain. Using a recombinant vaccinia virus expressing 89.6 Env glycoprotein (vBD3) in a mouse challenge model, we observed that IL-21 plasmid produced sustained resistance to viral transmission when injected 5 days after DNA vaccination. Moreover, IL-21 in a synergistic manner with IL-15 expression vector augmented the vaccine-induced recall responses to the vBD3 challenge compared with those elicited by immunization in the presence of either cytokine alone. The synergistic combination of IL-21 and IL-15 plasmids promoted expansion of CD8+CD127+ memory T cell pools specific for a subdominant HLA-A2-restricted Env(121-129) epitope (KLTPLCVTL). Our results also show that coimmunization with IL-21 and IL-15 plasmid combination resulted in enhanced CD8+ T cell function that was partially independent of CD4+ T cell help in mediating protection against vBD3 challenge. Furthermore, the use of IL-21 and IL-15 genes was able to increase Ab-dependent cellular cytotoxicity and complement-dependent lysis of Env-expressing target cells through augmentation of Env-specific IgG Ab levels. These data indicate that the plasmid-delivered IL-21 and IL-15 can increase the magnitude of the response to DNA vaccines.