1. A New Method for Reactivating and Expanding T Cells Specific for Rhizopus oryzae
- Author
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Bilal Omer, Dimitrios P. Kontoyiannis, Ann M. Leen, Catherine M. Bollard, Swaroop Bose, Yasmin Hazrat, Cliona M. Rooney, Conrad Russell Y. Cruz, Kaylor E. Wright, Paul Castillo, Thomas J. Walsh, Elizabeth Chorvinsky, Shabnum Patel, and Nathaniel D. Albert
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,lcsh:QH426-470 ,medicine.medical_treatment ,030106 microbiology ,Peripheral blood mononuclear cell ,Article ,03 medical and health sciences ,cytotoxic T cells ,Antigen ,Interferon ,Genetics ,medicine ,Cytotoxic T cell ,lcsh:QH573-671 ,Molecular Biology ,Immunodeficiency ,lcsh:Cytology ,business.industry ,immune reconstitution ,medicine.disease ,Fungal antigen ,cytokines ,Transplantation ,lcsh:Genetics ,030104 developmental biology ,Cytokine ,fungal ,Immunology ,Molecular Medicine ,antigen presentation/processing ,business ,medicine.drug ,transplantation - Abstract
Mucormycosis is responsible for an increasing proportion of deaths after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. Because this disease is associated with severe immunodeficiency and has shown resistance to even the newest antifungal agents, we determined the feasibility of reactivating and expanding Rhizopus oryzae-specific T cells for use as adoptive immunotherapy in transplant recipients. R. oryzae extract-pulsed monocytes were used to stimulate peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy donors, in the presence of different cytokine combinations. The generated R. oryzae-specific T cell products were phenotyped after the third stimulation and further characterized by the use of antibodies that block class I/II molecules, as well as pattern recognition receptors. Despite the very low frequency of R. oryzae-specific T cells of healthy donors, we found that stimulation with interleukin-2 (IL-2)/IL-7 cytokine combination could expand these rare cells. The expanded populations included 17%–83% CD4+ T cells that were specific for R. oryzae antigens. Besides interferon-γ (IFN-γ), these cells secreted IL-5, IL-10, IL-13, and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), and recognized fungal antigens presented by HLA-II molecules rather than through nonspecific signaling. The method described herein is robust and reproducible, and could be used to generate adequate quantities of activated R. oryzae-specific T cells for clinical testing of safety and antifungal efficacy in patients with mucormycosis. Keywords: transplantation, immune reconstitution, cytokines, fungal, cytotoxic T cells, antigen presentation/processing
- Published
- 2018