Abstract
TCR degeneracy may facilitate self‐reactive T cell activation and the initiation of an autoimmune response in multiple sclerosis (MS). MHC class II alleles of the DR2 haplotype DR2a (DRB5*0101) and DR2b (DRB1*1501) are associated with an increased risk for MS in Caucasian populations. In order to selectively expand and characterize T cells with a high degree of TCR degeneracy that recognize peptides in the context of disease‐associated DR2 alleles, we developed DR2‐anchored peptide mixtures (APM). We report here that DR2‐APM have a high stimulatory potency and can selectively expand T cells with a degenerate TCR (TCR~deg~). Due to the low concentration of individual peptides in the mixtures, T cell clones’ proliferative response to DR2‐APM implies that multiple peptides stimulate the TCR, which is a characteristic of TCR~deg~. The frequency of DR2‐APM‐reactive T cells is significantly higher in MS patients than in healthy controls, suggesting that they may play a role in the development of the autoimmune response in MS. DR2‐APM‐reactive cells have a dual DR2 restriction: they recognize DR2‐APM in the context of both DR2a and DR2b molecules. The DR2‐APM‐reactive cells’ IL‐17 secretion, together with cross‐reactivity against myelin peptides, may contribute to their role in the development of autoimmune response in MS.
Supporting Information for this article is available at http://www.wiley‐vch.de/contents/jc_2040/2008/37519_s.pdf
See accompanying article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/eji200838371