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In vivo immunogenicity of Tax(11–19) epitope in HLA-A2/DTR transgenic mice: Implication for dendritic cell-based anti-HTLV-1 vaccine
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

In vivo immunogenicity of Tax(11–19) epitope in HLA-A2/DTR transgenic mice: Implication for dendritic cell-based anti-HTLV-1 vaccine

Divya Sagar, Shet Masih, Todd Schell, Steven Jacobson, Joseph D Comber, Ramila Philip, Brian Wigdahl, Pooja Jain and Zafar K Khan
Vaccine, v 32(26), pp 3274-3284
30 May 2014
PMID: 24739247
url
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2014.03.087View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

HTLV-1 Tax Dendritic cells HLA-A2.1 transgenic mice CD11c-DTR transgenic mice
•HLA-A2/DTR transgenic mouse strain was generated to study immunogenicity of Tax(11–19) epitope.•A reduced proliferation of CD8+ splenocytes from Tax(11–19) immunized DC-depleted mice is observed.•Adjuvant usage demonstrated higher frequency of Tax(11–19)-specific cells.•Tax(11–19) epitope can be a potential candidate for a DC-based anti-HTLV-1 vaccine. Viral oncoprotein Tax plays key roles in transformation of human T-cell leukemia virus (HTLV-1)-infected T cells leading to adult T-cell leukemia (ATL), and is the key antigen recognized during HTLV-associated myelopathy (HAM). In HLA-A2+ asymptomatic carriers as well as ATL and HAM patients, Tax(11–19) epitope exhibits immunodominance. Here, we evaluate CD8 T-cell immune response against this epitope in the presence and absence of dendritic cells (DCs) given the recent encouraging observations made with Phase 1 DC-based vaccine trial for ATL. To facilitate these studies, we first generated an HLA-A2/DTR hybrid mouse strain carrying the HLA-A2.1 and CD11c-DTR genes. We then studied CD8 T-cell immune response against Tax(11–19) epitope delivered in the absence or presence of Freund's adjuvant and/or DCs. Overall results demonstrate that naturally presented Tax epitope could initiate an antigen-specific CD8T cell response in vivo but failed to do so upon DC depletion. Presence of adjuvant potentiated Tax(11–19)-specific response. Elevated serum IL-6 levels coincided with depletion of DCs whereas decreased TGF-β was associated with adjuvant use. Thus, Tax(11–19) epitope is a potential candidate for the DC-based anti-HTLV-1 vaccine and the newly hybrid mouse strain could be used for investigating DC involvement in human class-I-restricted immune responses.

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Immunology
Medicine, Research & Experimental
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