Herpesvirus-transformed cytotoxic T-cell lines

Investigations of cellular cytotoxicity of the immune system are hampered by the lack of continuously growing, transformed cell lines which express a cytotoxic potential. Here we describe cytotoxic cell lines from the cotton-topped marmoset monkey, transformed by Herpesvirus Ateles (HVA) or Herpesvirus Saimiri (HVS), which can kill certain target cells in a short-term in vitro test. HVA/HVS-transformed cells have earlier been classified as belonging to the T-cell lineage in contrast to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-transformed cells derived from B lymphocytes. We suggest that the HVA/HVS-transformed killer cell lines described here represent an effector population resembling, or corresponding to, marmoset natural killer (NK) cells and that they may be used to define the cytolytic mechanism involved in cellular cytotoxicity and possibly also effector cell receptors and target cell antigens, as well as regulatory mechanisms of general biological interest.     

MHC class I alloantigen specificity of Ly-49+ IL-2-activated natural killer cells.

The molecular basis of target cell recognition by CD3- natural killer (NK) cells is poorly understood, despite the ability of NK cells to lyse specific tumour cells. In general, target cell major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I antigen expression correlates with resistance to NK cell-mediated lysis, possibly because NK cell-surface molecules engage MHC class I antigens and consequently deliver inhibitory signals. Natural killer cell allospecificity involves the MHC class I peptide-binding cleft, and further understanding of this allospecificity should provide insight into the molecular mechanisms of NK cell recognition. The Ly-49 cell surface molecular mechanisms of NK cell recognition. The Ly-49 cell surface molecule is expressed by 20% of CD3- NK cells in C57BL/6 mice (H-2b). Here we show that C57BL/6-derived, interleukin-2-activated NK cells expressing Ly-49 do not lyse target cells displaying H-2d or H-2k despite efficient spontaneous lysis by Ly-49- effector cells. This preferential resistance correlates with expression of target cell MHC class I antigens. Transfection and expression of H-2Dd, but not H-2Kd or H-2Ld, renders a susceptible target (H-2b) resistant to Ly-49+ effector cells. The transfected resistance is abrogated by monoclonal antibodies directed against Ly-49 or the alpha 1/alpha 2 domains of H-2Dd, suggesting that Ly-49 specifically interacts with the peptide-binding domains of the MHC class I alloantigen, H-2Dd. Inasmuch as Ly-49+ effector cells cannot be stimulated to lyse H-2Dd targets, our results indicate that NK cells may possess inhibitory receptors that specifically recognize MHC class I antigens.     

Serine esterase in cytolytic T lymphocytes

The mechanisms that enable cytotoxic T lymphocytes (Tc cells) to destroy target cells are only vaguely understood. However, recent studies have identified in Tc cells and natural killer cells cytoplasmic granules that contain perforin, a cytolytic protein that resembles the ninth component of complement (C9). Antigen-specific lysis of target cells, traditionally ascribed solely to Tc cells, has now also been demonstrated in some T-helper cell (Th cell) lines, referred to here as T helper-killer or Th/c cells. We recently found a novel serine esterase that is present at greatly elevated levels in cloned murine Tc cell lines and one Th/c cell line, but not in two non-cytolytic Th cell lines. These findings suggest that the serine esterase is involved in cytolytic activity and that a variety of effector cells share a common cytolytic mechanism. To explore the role of the serine esterase in this process, we have been studying additional properties of the enzyme in murine T cells. We show here that it is a membrane-associated, disulphide-linked dimer, it has trypsin-like properties but is not a general protease, in density gradient centrifugation it sediments with perforin, it is secreted by Tc cells during their cytolytic attack on target cells, and antiserum to Tc-cell serine esterase reacts with the enzyme in Th/c cells.     

Homology of perforin to the ninth component of complement (C9)

Perforin is one of the cytolytic factors present in the cytoplasmic granules of mouse cytotoxic T lymphocytes and natural killer cells. We have determined the sequence of the N-terminal amino acids of perforin purified from a mouse natural killer cell line, and, by using oligonucleotide probes corresponding to the amino acid residues, we have identified a complementary DNA encoding perforin from the cDNA library of a mouse cytotoxic T lymphocyte clone. As predicted from the functional similarities between perforin and the ninth component of the serum cytolytic system, complement (C9) (refs 4-8), the deduced primary structure of perforin has homology with C9 at their respective functionally conserved regions. We find that perforin is only expressed in killer cell lines, and not in helper T lymphocytes or other tumour cells tested. Thus we have provided direct molecular evidence that a killer-cell-specific protein evolutionally linked to C9 is involved in cell-mediated cytolysis.     

Licensing of natural killer cells by host major histocompatibility complex class I molecules

Self versus non-self discrimination is a central theme in biology from plants to vertebrates, and is particularly relevant for lymphocytes that express receptors capable of recognizing self-tissues and foreign invaders. Comprising the third largest lymphocyte population, natural killer (NK) cells recognize and kill cellular targets and produce pro-inflammatory cytokines. These potentially self-destructive effector functions can be controlled by inhibitory receptors for the polymorphic major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules that are ubiquitously expressed on target cells. However, inhibitory receptors are not uniformly expressed on NK cells, and are germline-encoded by a set of polymorphic genes that segregate independently from MHC genes. Therefore, how NK-cell self-tolerance arises in vivo is poorly understood. Here we demonstrate that NK cells acquire functional competence through 'licensing' by self-MHC molecules. Licensing involves a positive role for MHC-specific inhibitory receptors and requires the cytoplasmic inhibitory motif originally identified in effector responses. This process results in two types of self-tolerant NK cells--licensed or unlicensed--and may provide new insights for exploiting NK cells in immunotherapy. This self-tolerance mechanism may be more broadly applicable within the vertebrate immune system because related germline-encoded inhibitory receptors are widely expressed on other immune cells.     

Bispecific antibody and its clinical applications in cancer

Bispecific antibody (BsAb) usually consists of two different antigen-binding arms, by which it is capable of simultaneously binding to target cells and effector cells, and can directly mediate the killing of target cells by retargeting and activating effector cells. The development of BsAb research goes through three main stages: chemical cross- linking of murine-derived monoclonal antibody, hybrid hybridomas and engineered BsAb. Among them, engineered BsAb has more formats than the other two, such as diabody, ScdHLX, ScZip, ScCH3, ScFab and BsIgG, etc. Compared with former murine-derived BsAbs, engineered BsAb has lower immunogenicity and stronger penetrating capacity, and currently, some of them appear suitable for clinical application in yields and qualities. Up to now, several phase Ⅰand phase Ⅱ clinical studies of BsAb, for instance, some (Fab’)₂ and Diabodies, have been performed. Among those BsAbs, anti-CD3/anti-tumor BsAbs is most common, they not only can activate T cell and induce CD3AK cytotoxic activity in in vitro experiment, and inhibit the growth of tumor on tumor-bearing mouse by retargeting T cells to lyse tumor cells, but also offer great promise in the therapy of some malignancies in clinic, especially of some advanced cancers as well as elimination of minimal residual tumors, indicated by increasing the tumor/blood ratio of antibody in patients and improving the natural killer cell (NK) anti-tumor activity in tumor sites, and also presenting of an increase level in TNF-α,INF-γ, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10 and soluble CD25, etc. The responses are also shown via improving the quality of life and prolonging the survival of partial patients. The “Knobs into Holes” technology is a new strategy emerging during research on engineered BsAb, it is likely to be useful for heterodimerization and can improve the quantity, purity and stability of BsAb, it is also anticipated to increase the clinical potential of BsAb in the future.     

A cloned cell with NK function resembles basophils by ultrastructure and expresses IgE receptors

Natural killer (NK) cells are defined by their ability to lyse certain tumour cells in vitro without previous exposure to them, and have been postulated as effectors of immune surveillance against spontaneous neoplasms. Because they kill some non-neoplastic lymphoid cells, they may also have a role in immunoregulation. NK cell activity resides in a small proportion of normal mouse spleen cells (less than 5%) that have been difficult to characterize completely. They may represent a heterogeneous group of effector cells whose precise relationship to other myelopoietic or immunological cells has remained obscure. We have previously described a cloned mouse cell line (Cl. Ly 1-2-NK-1+/11) with the functional characteristics of natural killer cells activated by interferon or other factors. We now find that this cloned line, like basophils and mast cells, expresses high-affinity plasma membrane receptors (Fc epsilon R) specific for IgE antibody. In addition, the clone contains cytoplasmic granules similar by ultrastructure to those of basophils of the mouse and other species. Our findings indicate that cells sharing morphological and biochemical features of basophilic granulocytes can mediate NK lysis.     

gamma-Interferon induced by S. aureus protein A augments natural killing and ADCC

Staphylococcus aureus produces a protein identified as protein A (SpA) with a molecular weight of 41,000 (ref. 1) which binds to the Fc region of many types of mammalian IgG2, activates complement, blocks opsonins and is both chemotactic and mitogenic. SpA has been used for various immunological purposes including removal of immune complexes, arming effector cells with antibody, distinguishing between antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) and natural killing (NK), and exerting anti-tumor activity. We have now demonstrated that SpA induces the production of gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) in nonadherent, T lymphocyte-depleted (E-), Fc receptor-bearing (FcR+) human peripheral blood lymphocytes. Our data also suggest that IFN-gamma is a potent stimulator of both NK and ADCC activity.     

Gene rearrangement in cells with natural killer activity and expression of the beta-chain of the T-cell antigen receptor

The mammalian host defence system can be divided broadly into adaptive and non-adaptive immunity. Adaptive immunity is acquired and is mediated by B and T lymphocytes. Non-adaptive immunity is mediated in part by a small subclass of heterogeneous peripheral blood mononuclear cells. This population, termed null cells, consists of haematopoietic precursors and cells mediating natural killer (NK) activity and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). NK cells are a class of non-adherent, non-phagocytic, rapidly cytotoxic lymphocytes which can efficiently lyse a wide variety of tumour cells, virally infected cells and immature cell types of normal origin. Despite the broad range of targets, only a limited number of specificities are thought to be involved in target-cell recognition. Morphologically, NK cells are large granular lymphocytes, but they have been shown to exhibit cell-surface markers characteristic of both T cells and monocytes, raising doubt over their lineage. The recent cloning of the beta-chain of the T-cell antigen receptor has now allowed us to investigate whether some NK cells are T-cell-related. We have examined rearrangement and expression of the beta-chain of the T-cell receptor in cloned murine NK cell lines and fresh murine NK cell populations, and our results support the hypothesis that a subpopulation of NK cells is related to T cells and provide basis for examining whether some NK activity is mediated by a small number of T-cell receptors.     

Cloning and expression in Escherichia coli of the gene for human tumour necrosis factor

Tumour necrosis factor (TNF) was found originally in mouse serum after intravenous injection of bacterial endotoxin into mice primed with viable Mycobacterium bovis, strain Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG). TNF-containing serum from mice is cytotoxic or cytostatic to a number of mouse and human transformed cell lines, but less or not toxic to normal cells in vitro. It causes necrosis of transplantable tumours in mice. TNF also occurs in serum of rat, rabbit and guinea pig. Rabbit TNF has been purified recently to give a single band on SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). The purified TNF had a relative molecular mass (Mr) 40,000 +/- 5,000 measured by gel filtration, and 17,000 by SDS-PAGE. Its isoelectric point is 5.0 +/- 0.3. The necrotic activity in vivo and the cytotoxicity in vitro are produced by the same substance. The gene encoding TNF has been identified in a human genomic DNA library using as a probe a cloned cDNA encoding a portion of rabbit TNF. The regions of this gene encoding an amino-acid sequence corresponding to mature TNF have been expressed in Escherichia coli and the product of this expression isolated in pure form and shown to produce necrosis of murine tumours in vivo.     

Cell-mediated immunity to Theileria-transformed cell lines.

In East and Central Africa the protozoan parasite Theileria parva causes a disease of cattle called East Coast fever (ECF). In Kenya alone between 60,000 and 85,000 cattle die from ECF every year. Infected animals can recover from ECF either naturally or after treatment with tetracyclines or menoctone and are subsequently able to resist challenge with the homologous strain of parasite. That this acquired resistance is due to cell-mediated rather than humoral immunity has been suspected but never decisively shown. A major difficulty in studying immunity to ECF has been the lack of inbred animals for studying Theileria-specific immunity in the absence of allogeneic histocompatibility barriers. We have avoided this problem by measuring cell-mediated immune responses in a syngeneic system in vitro. Unidirectional mixed lymphocyte cultures (MLC) were set up using bovine peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) as responder cells and autologous cell lines transformed in vitro by T. parva as stimulator cells. In these cultures, DNA synthesis was induced in PBL from both normal and Theileria-immune animals. However, cytotoxic lymphocytes were induced only in cultures containing responder lymphocytes from Theileria-immune cattle. The results show that Theileria-transformed cells express antigens which are recognized by effector cells and provide evidence that cell-mediated cytotoxic mechanisms function in immunity to ECF.     

A new immunodeficiency disorder in humans involving NK cells

Immunodeficiency disorders have provided much information on the development and interaction of the various B and T lymphoid components in the immune system of man. As the lymphoid system becomes increasingly divided into functional subsets of cells it will be important to find immunodeficiencies affecting newly discovered cell types. Natural killer (NK) cells are a recently described but ill-defined subpopulation of lymphocytes which is thought to play an important part in surveillance against tumour development. Mice homozygous for the beige gene were found to have a selective deficiency in NK function and were more susceptible to transplantation of syngeneic tumours as predicted. We report here that patients carrying the analogous, autosomal recessive Chediak-Higashi (CH) gene have a profound defect in their ability to spontaneously lyse various tumour cells in vitro by either antibody-dependent or independent mechanisms. Since other cell-mediated cytolytic functions were relatively normal, these results suggest that the beige or Chediak-Higashi gene in both man and mouse controls NK function.     

Induction and kinetics of natural killer cells in humans following interferon therapy

Natural killer (NK) cells are non-B, non-T lymphocytes that effect spontaneous cytolysis of both virus-infected and neoplastically transformed target cells. These NK lymphocytes have been detected in several species including man. Interferon is a primary regulator of natural killer activity. Because NK cells have been implicated in the regulation of tumour cell expression and can be induced by interferon in murine models, we have studied patients receiving large doses of interferon to determine (1) whether interferon could induce NK lymphocytes in the peripheral blood of man, and (2) whether there are characteristic kinetics for the appearance, disappearance and reactivation of NK lymphocytes following interferon therapy. We report here the activation of human NK cells by the systemic inoculation of human subjects with interferon. Five patients received interferon as therapy for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. All showed a marked increase in NK cell activity 12--24 h after inoculation. Peak NK activity occurred 18 h after introducing interferon, and thereafter declined rapidly but remained above pre-interferon levels. Induced NK activity occurred with reintroduction of interferon but at lower levels of activity and with different kinetics.     

Identity of differentiation inducing factor and tumour necrosis factor

Human myelogenous leukaemic cells can be induced to differentiate into the monocyte/macrophage pathway by protein inducers called differentiation inducing factors (DIF) in conditioned media of mitogen-stimulated human peripheral blood leukocytes. However, human DIF has not yet been well characterized. DIF is known to be a T-cell lymphokine, as it can be obtained from the T-cell line HUT-102 and can be partially purified from medium conditioned by phytohaemagglutinin (PHA)-stimulated lymphocytes. We found that monocytes also produce factor(s) that induce differentiation of human myelogenous leukaemia cell lines to cells with macrophage-like characteristics. This factor(s) has activity different from that of colony-stimulating factor(s) or interferons. We have now purified a DIF to homogeneity from medium conditioned by PHA-stimulated leukocytes using a human myeloblastic leukemia cell line, ML-1, as target cells. The purified DIF has a relative molecular mass (Mr) of approximately 17,000, with an NH2-terminal sequence the same as that of human tumour necrosis factor (TNF). Recombinant human TNF (rHuTNF) induces differentiation of ML-1 cells and an anti-pDIF monoclonal antibody can neutralize both differentiation inducing activity and cytotoxic activity of DIF and rHuTNF. The findings indicate that one of the DIF(s) produced by leukocytes is probably TNF.     

吉林人参低聚肽的免疫调节作用

 为研究吉林人参低聚肽(GOP)对小鼠的免疫调节作用, 选取280 只SPF 级雌性BALB/c 小鼠, 随机分为7 组:空白对照组、乳清蛋白组(150 mg/kg)及5 个GOP 组(37.5、75、150、300、600 mg/kg)。连续灌胃30 d 后, 进行免疫7 项实验测定, 观察GOP 对小鼠免疫器官相对重量、细胞免疫功能、体液免疫功能、单核-巨噬细胞功能和NK 细胞活性的影响。结果表明:GOP 显著提高了ConA 诱导的小鼠脾淋巴细胞增殖能力、迟发型变态反应能力、抗体生成细胞数、小鼠碳廓清指数、巨噬细胞吞噬率和吞噬指数、NK 细胞活性(P<0.05), 且效果优于乳清蛋白。由此可知, GOP 可以通过增强细胞免疫功能、体液免疫功能、单核-巨噬细胞吞噬能力和NK 细胞活性, 起到增强免疫力的作用。     

Suppression of in vitro lymphocyte reactivity by cyclosporin A: existence of a population of drug-resistant cytotoxic lymphocytes

Cyclosporin A (CS-A) is an unusual endecapeptide isolated from the fungi Cylindrocarpon lucidum Booth and Trichoderma polysporum. It is a potent immunosuppressive drug that prevents rejection of kidney and heart allografts whilst having a low myelotoxicity. Its mode of action is still unclear but its main target appears to be the T lymphocyte. The mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) and cell-mediated lymphocytoxicity (CML) used here are generally regarded as in vitro correlates of allograft rejection. Our data show that CS-A is a powerful inhibitor of MLR reactivity, regardless of whether the cells were obtained from normal or presensitized donors; that the CML of lymph node cells is likewise totally inhibited if the drug is added early during cell culture; and that, by contrast, the cytotoxic response of spleen cells from presensitized but not from normal mice is only partially inhibited, even with a tenfold increase in dose. It is therefore suggested that there exists a population of cytotoxic spleen cells that is relatively resistant to the action of this drug.     

Activation of cytolytic T lymphocyte and natural killer cell function through the T11 sheep erythrocyte binding protein

The T11 sheep erythrocyte binding glycoprotein [relative molecular mass (Mr)50,000(50K)] is expressed throughout human T-lymphocyte ontogeny and appears to play an important physiological role in T-cell activation. Thus, the treatment of T cells with certain monoclonal anti-T11 antibodies results in antigen-independent polyclonal T-cell activation as assessed by proliferation and lymphokine secretion. In addition, the majority of thymocytes that have not yet acquired the T3-Ti antigen/major histocompatibility complex (MHC) receptor can be activated to express interleukin-2 (IL-2) receptors through this T11 structure. We show here that the triggering of cytolytic T (Tc) cells via T11 causes an antigen-independent activation of the cytolytic mechanism as evidenced by the induction of nonspecific cytolytic activity. Furthermore, T11+T3-Ti- natural killer (NK) cell clones can also be induced to lyse NK-cell-resistant targets by treatment with anti-T11 monoclonal antibodies directed at defined T11 epitopes. These results indicate that T11 triggering can activate cytotoxic lymphocytes to express their functional programmes in the absence of specific antigen recognition via the T3-Ti complex and provide further evidence for the notion that certain NK cells and T lymphocytes are related.