Proteasome-Generated cis-Spliced Peptides and Their Potential Role in CD8+ T Cell Tolerance

The human immune system relies on the capability of CD8+ T cells to patrol body cells, spot infected cells and eliminate them. This cytotoxic response is supposed to be limited to infected cells to avoid killing of healthy cells. To enable this, CD8+ T cells have T Cell Receptors (TCRs) which should...

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Main Authors: Artem Mansurkhodzhaev, Camila R. R. Barbosa, Michele Mishto, Juliane Liepe
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-02-01
Series:Frontiers in Immunology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2021.614276/full
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author Artem Mansurkhodzhaev
Camila R. R. Barbosa
Michele Mishto
Michele Mishto
Juliane Liepe
author_facet Artem Mansurkhodzhaev
Camila R. R. Barbosa
Michele Mishto
Michele Mishto
Juliane Liepe
author_sort Artem Mansurkhodzhaev
collection DOAJ
description The human immune system relies on the capability of CD8+ T cells to patrol body cells, spot infected cells and eliminate them. This cytotoxic response is supposed to be limited to infected cells to avoid killing of healthy cells. To enable this, CD8+ T cells have T Cell Receptors (TCRs) which should discriminate between self and non-self through the recognition of antigenic peptides bound to Human Leukocyte Antigen class I (HLA-I) complexes—i.e., HLA-I immunopeptidomes—of patrolled cells. The majority of these antigenic peptides are produced by proteasomes through either peptide hydrolysis or peptide splicing. Proteasome-generated cis-spliced peptides derive from a given antigen, are immunogenic and frequently presented by HLA-I complexes. Theoretically, they also have a very large sequence variability, which might impinge upon our model of self/non-self discrimination and central and peripheral CD8+ T cell tolerance. Indeed, a large variety of cis-spliced epitopes might enlarge the pool of viral-human zwitter epitopes, i.e., peptides that may be generated with the exact same sequence from both self (human) and non-self (viral) antigens. Antigenic viral-human zwitter peptides may be recognized by CD8+ thymocytes and T cells, induce clonal deletion or other tolerance processes, thereby restraining CD8+ T cell response against viruses. To test this hypothesis, we computed in silico the theoretical frequency of zwitter non-spliced and cis-spliced epitope candidates derived from human proteome (self) and from the proteomes of a large pool of viruses (non-self). We considered their binding affinity to the representative HLA-A*02:01 complex, self-antigen expression in Medullary Thymic Epithelial cells (mTECs) and the relative frequency of non-spliced and cis-spliced peptides in HLA-I immunopeptidomes. Based on the present knowledge of proteasome-catalyzed peptide splicing and neglecting CD8+ TCR degeneracy, our study suggests that, despite their frequency, the portion of the cis-spliced peptides we investigated could only marginally impinge upon the variety of functional CD8+ cytotoxic T cells (CTLs) involved in anti-viral response.
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spelling doaj.art-a9f5ed74576c4d55bc64b7830e9a96e42022-12-21T20:33:38ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Immunology1664-32242021-02-011210.3389/fimmu.2021.614276614276Proteasome-Generated cis-Spliced Peptides and Their Potential Role in CD8+ T Cell ToleranceArtem Mansurkhodzhaev0Camila R. R. Barbosa1Michele Mishto2Michele Mishto3Juliane Liepe4Quantitative and Systems Biology, Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, GermanyCentre for Inflammation Biology and Cancer Immunology (CIBCI) and Peter Gorer Department of Immunobiology, King's College London, London, United KingdomCentre for Inflammation Biology and Cancer Immunology (CIBCI) and Peter Gorer Department of Immunobiology, King's College London, London, United KingdomFrancis Crick Institute, London, United KingdomQuantitative and Systems Biology, Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, GermanyThe human immune system relies on the capability of CD8+ T cells to patrol body cells, spot infected cells and eliminate them. This cytotoxic response is supposed to be limited to infected cells to avoid killing of healthy cells. To enable this, CD8+ T cells have T Cell Receptors (TCRs) which should discriminate between self and non-self through the recognition of antigenic peptides bound to Human Leukocyte Antigen class I (HLA-I) complexes—i.e., HLA-I immunopeptidomes—of patrolled cells. The majority of these antigenic peptides are produced by proteasomes through either peptide hydrolysis or peptide splicing. Proteasome-generated cis-spliced peptides derive from a given antigen, are immunogenic and frequently presented by HLA-I complexes. Theoretically, they also have a very large sequence variability, which might impinge upon our model of self/non-self discrimination and central and peripheral CD8+ T cell tolerance. Indeed, a large variety of cis-spliced epitopes might enlarge the pool of viral-human zwitter epitopes, i.e., peptides that may be generated with the exact same sequence from both self (human) and non-self (viral) antigens. Antigenic viral-human zwitter peptides may be recognized by CD8+ thymocytes and T cells, induce clonal deletion or other tolerance processes, thereby restraining CD8+ T cell response against viruses. To test this hypothesis, we computed in silico the theoretical frequency of zwitter non-spliced and cis-spliced epitope candidates derived from human proteome (self) and from the proteomes of a large pool of viruses (non-self). We considered their binding affinity to the representative HLA-A*02:01 complex, self-antigen expression in Medullary Thymic Epithelial cells (mTECs) and the relative frequency of non-spliced and cis-spliced peptides in HLA-I immunopeptidomes. Based on the present knowledge of proteasome-catalyzed peptide splicing and neglecting CD8+ TCR degeneracy, our study suggests that, despite their frequency, the portion of the cis-spliced peptides we investigated could only marginally impinge upon the variety of functional CD8+ cytotoxic T cells (CTLs) involved in anti-viral response.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2021.614276/fullbioinformaticsantigen presentationMHC-Ipeptide splicingnegative selectionT-cell repertoire
spellingShingle Artem Mansurkhodzhaev
Camila R. R. Barbosa
Michele Mishto
Michele Mishto
Juliane Liepe
Proteasome-Generated cis-Spliced Peptides and Their Potential Role in CD8+ T Cell Tolerance
Frontiers in Immunology
bioinformatics
antigen presentation
MHC-I
peptide splicing
negative selection
T-cell repertoire
title Proteasome-Generated cis-Spliced Peptides and Their Potential Role in CD8+ T Cell Tolerance
title_full Proteasome-Generated cis-Spliced Peptides and Their Potential Role in CD8+ T Cell Tolerance
title_fullStr Proteasome-Generated cis-Spliced Peptides and Their Potential Role in CD8+ T Cell Tolerance
title_full_unstemmed Proteasome-Generated cis-Spliced Peptides and Their Potential Role in CD8+ T Cell Tolerance
title_short Proteasome-Generated cis-Spliced Peptides and Their Potential Role in CD8+ T Cell Tolerance
title_sort proteasome generated cis spliced peptides and their potential role in cd8 t cell tolerance
topic bioinformatics
antigen presentation
MHC-I
peptide splicing
negative selection
T-cell repertoire
url https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2021.614276/full
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