Molecular basis for universal HLA-A*0201-restricted CD8+ T-cell immunity against influenza viruses

  • Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Apr 19;113(16):4440-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1603106113.
Sophie A Valkenburg  1 Tracy M Josephs  2 E Bridie Clemens  1 Emma J Grant  1 Thi H O Nguyen  1 George C Wang  3 David A Price  4 Adrian Miller  5 Steven Y C Tong  6 Paul G Thomas  7 Peter C Doherty  8 Jamie Rossjohn  9 Stephanie Gras  10 Katherine Kedzierska  11
Affiliations
  • 1. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne, at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia;
  • 2. Infection and Immunity Program, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia;
  • 3. Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205;
  • 4. Institute of Infection and Immunity, Cardiff University School of Medicine, Cardiff CF14 4XN, United Kingdom;
  • 5. Indigenous Research Network, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD 4111 Australia;
  • 6. Menzies School of Health Research, Darwin, NT 0810, Australia;
  • 7. Department of Immunology, St Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN 38105;
  • 8. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne, at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia; Department of Immunology, St Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN 38105; [email protected] [email protected] [email protected].
  • 9. Infection and Immunity Program, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia; Institute of Infection and Immunity, Cardiff University School of Medicine, Cardiff CF14 4XN, United Kingdom; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Advanced Molecular Imaging, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia.
  • 10. Infection and Immunity Program, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Advanced Molecular Imaging, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia [email protected] [email protected] [email protected].
  • 11. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne, at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia; [email protected] [email protected] [email protected].
Abstract

Memory CD8(+)T lymphocytes (CTLs) specific for antigenic peptides derived from internal Viral Proteins confer broad protection against distinct strains of influenza A virus (IAV). However, immune efficacy can be undermined by the emergence of escape mutants. To determine how T-cell receptor (TCR) composition relates to IAV epitope variability, we used ex vivo peptide-HLA tetramer enrichment and single-cell multiplex analysis to compare TCRs targeted to the largely conserved HLA-A*0201-M158and the hypervariable HLA-B*3501-NP418antigens. The TCRαβs for HLA-B*3501-NP418 (+)CTLs varied among individuals and across IAV strains, indicating that a range of mutated peptides will prime different NP418-specific CTL sets. Conversely, a dominant public TRAV27/TRBV19(+)TCRαβ was selected in HLA-A*0201(+)donors responding to M158 This public TCR cross-recognized naturally occurring M158variants complexed with HLA-A*0201. Ternary structures showed that induced-fit molecular mimicry underpins TRAV27/TRBV19(+)TCR specificity for the WT and mutant M158peptides, suggesting the possibility of universal CTL immunity in HLA-A*0201(+)individuals. Combined with the high population frequency of HLA-A*0201, these data potentially explain the relative conservation of M158 Moreover, our results suggest that vaccination strategies aimed at generating broad protection should incorporate variant peptides to elicit cross-reactive responses against Other specificities, especially those that may be relatively infrequent among IAV-primed memory CTLs.

Keywords
T-cell receptor; human CD8+ T cells; influenza infection.