Conserved T-cell receptor sequences

Details Conserved T-cell receptor sequences Conserved T-cell receptor sequences

2000-04-06

2001-10-16

Mertz, Prema (Department: 1646)

Chemistry: natural resins or derivatives; peptides or proteins;

Peptides of 3 to 100 amino acid residues

25 or more amino acid residues in defined sequence

C530S326000, C530S330000, C536S023100, C536S023500

Reexamination Certificate

active

06303750

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
T lymphocytes recognizes antigens through the T cell antigen receptor (TCR) complex. The TCR is a clone-specific heterodimer on T cells, which recognizes its target antigen in association with a major histocompatibility antigen. Moreover, the TCR is highly polymorphic in different T cells. Approximately 90 percent of peripheral blood T cells express a TCR consisting of an &agr; polypeptide and a &bgr; polypeptide and a small percentage of T cells express a TCR consisting of a &ggr; polypeptide and a &dgr; polypeptide. See Davis and Bjorkman, 1988
, Nature
334:395-402; Marrack and Kappler, 1986
, Sci. Amer
. 254:36; Meuer et al., 1984
, Ann. Rev. Immunol
. 2:23-50; Brenner et al., 1986
, Nature
322:145-159; Krangel et al., 1987
, Science
237:1051-1055; Hata et al., 1987
, Science
238:678-682; Hochstenbach et al., 1988
, J. Exp. Med
. 168:761-776).
The chains of the T cell antigen receptor of a T cell clone are each composed of a unique combination of domains designated variable (V), diversity (D), joining (J), and constant (C) (Siu et al., 1984, Cell 37:393; Yanagi et al., 1985
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
82:3430). Hypervariable regions also have been identified (Patten et al., 1984
, Nature
312:40; Becker et al., 1985
, Nature
317:430). In each T cell clone, the combination of V, D and J domains of both the alpha and the beta chains or both the delta and gamma chains and defines a unique antigen binding site in each T-cell clone. In contrast, the C domain does not participate in antigen binding.
TCR genes, like immunoglobulin genes, consist of regions which arrange during T cell ontogeny (Chien et al., 1984
, Nature
312:31-35; Hedrick et al., 1984
, Nature
308:149-153; Yanagi et al., 1984
, Nature
308:145-149). In genomic DNA, each TCR gene has V, J, and C regions; TCR &bgr; and &dgr; polypeptides also have D regions. The V, D, J and C regions are separated from one another by spacer regions in the DNA. There are usually many variable region segments and somewhat fewer diversity, junctional, and constant regions segments. As a lymphocyte matures, these various segments are spliced together to create a continuous gene sequence consisting of one V, (D), J, and C regions. TCR diversity, and thus T cell specificity, derives from several sources, (Barth et al, 1985
, Nature
316:517-523; Fink et al., 1986
, Nature
321:219-225) including: a multiplicity of germline gene segments (Chien et al., 1984
, Nature
309:322-326; Malissen et al., 1984
, Cell
37:1101-1110; Gascoigne et al., 1984
, Nature
310:387-391; Kavaler et al., 1984
, Nature
310:421-423; Siu et al., 1984
, Nature
311:344-349; Patten et al., 1984
, Nature
312:40-46), combinatorial diversity through the assembly of different V, D, J, and C segments (Siu et al., 1984
, Cell
37:393-401; Goverman et al., 1985
, Cell
40:859-867), and junctional flexibility, N-region diversity and the use of either multiple D regions or any of the three translational reading frames for D&bgr; segments. As a result of these mechanisms, TCRs are generated which differ at their N-terminal (called variable, or V regions, constructed from combinations of V, D, and J gene segments) but are the same elsewhere, including their C-terminal (called constant regions). Therefore, an infinite number of TCRs can be established.
The V&bgr; gene of the TCR appears to resemble most closely the immunoglobulin V gene in that it has three gene segments, V&bgr;, D&bgr;, and J&bgr;, which rearrange to form a contiguous V&bgr; gene (Siu et al., 1984
, Cell
37:393-401). The &bgr; locus has been well characterized in mice, where it spans 700-800 kilobases of DNA and is comprised of two nearly identical C regions tandemly arranged with one D element and a cluster of 5-6 J elements 5′ to each (Kronenberg et al., 1986
, Ann Rev. Immunol
. 3:537-560). Approximately twenty to thirty V&bgr; regions are located upstream (5′) to the D, J, and C elements (Behlke et al., 1985
, Science
, 229:566-570) although V&bgr; genes may also be located 3′ to the murine C&bgr; genes (Malissen et al., 1986
, Nature
319:28). Study of the structure and diversity of the human TCR &bgr;-chain variable region genes has led to the grouping of genes into district V&bgr; subfamilies (Tillinghast et al., 1986
, Science
233:879-883; Concannon et al., 1986
, Proc. Natl., Acad. Sci. USA
83:6598-6602; Borst et al., 1987
, J. Immunol
. 139:1952-1959).
The &ggr;TCR gene was identified, first in mice (Saito et al., 1984
, Nature
309:757-762; Kranz et al., 1985
, Nature
313:762-755; Hayday et al., 1985
, Cell
40:259-269) and then in humans (Lefranc et al., 1985
, Nature
316:464-466; Murre et al., 1985
, Nature
316:549-552). The human &ggr;TCR locus appears to consist of between five and ten variable, five joining, and two constant region genes (Dialynas et al., 1986
, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
83:2619).
The TCR &agr; and &dgr; locus are adjacent to one another on human chromosome 14. Many TCR &dgr; coding segments are located entirely within the &agr; gene locus (Satyanarayana et al., 1988
, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
85:8166-8170 Chien et al., 1987
, Nature
330:722-727; Elliot et al., 1988
, Nature
331:627-631). It is estimated that there are a minimum of 45-50 V&agr; regions (Becker et al.,
Nature
317:430-434) whereas there are only approximately 10 V&dgr; regions (Chien et al., 1987, supra). Nucleic acid sequences of TCR &agr; genes have been reported (Sim et al., 1984
, Nature
312:771-775; Yanagi et al., 1985
, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
82:3430-3434; Berkout et al., 1988
, Nucl. Acids Res.
16:5208).
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, recurrent, inflammatory disease primarily involving joints, affecting 1-3% of North Americans. Three times the number of women are afflicted with RA than men. Severe RA patients tend to exhibit extra-articular manifestations including vasculitis, muscle atrophy, subcutaneous nodules, lymphadenopathy, splenomegaly and leukopenia. Spontaneous remission may occur; other patients have brief episodes of acute arthritis with longer periods of low-grade activity; still others progress to severe deformity of joints. It is estimated that about 15% of RA patients become completely incapcitated (“Primer on the Rheumatic Diseases,” 8th edition, 1983, Rodman, G. P. & Schumacher, H. R. Eds., Zvaifler, N. J., Assoc. Ed., Arthritis Foundations, Atlanta, Ga.).
The antigenic stimulus initiating the immune response and consequent inflammation is unknown. Certain HLA types (DR4, Dw4, Dw14 and DR1) have an increased prevalence of RA, perhaps leading to a genetic susceptibility to an unidentified factor which initiates the disease process. Relationships between Epstein Barr virus and RA have been suggested.
Many cell types, notably macrophages, synoviocytes and polymorphonuclear leukocytes, participate in the complex inflammatory response which effects joint destruction in R.A. However, a central role for T lymphocytes is suggested by: 1) the rich infiltration of activated T cells at the primary site of RA disease, the synovial tissue van Boxel, J. A., et al., 1975
; N. Engl. J. Med
., 293:517; Panayi, J. S. et al., 1992
, Arthritis Rheum
. 35:729; 2) genetic studies linking RA disease susceptibility to a defined amino acid sequence in the third hypervariable region of the DR&bgr; chain of the major histocompatibilty complex (MHC) class II molecule P. Gregersen, J. Silver, R. J. Winchester, 1987
, Arthritis Rheum
. 30:1205); 3) animal models of chronic arthritis in which antigen-specific T cells are capable of transferring disease to naive recipients R. Holmdahl, L. Klareskog, K. Rubin, E. Larsson, H. Wigzell,
Scand. J. Immunol
. 22:295 (1985); W. van Eden et al.,
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
, 1985, 82:5117 (1985)); and 4) amelioration of arthritis, both in murine models of autoimmune disease and in patients with RA, by administration of monoclonal antibody (mAb) reactive with the CD4
+
T cell subset G. E. Rangers, S. Sriram, S. M. Cooper,
J. Exp. Med
., 1985, 162:11104; G. Horneff, G. R. Burmester, F.

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