Building on decades of work showing how T cell receptors recognize peptide antigens bound to MHC proteins, the discovery of the CD1 antigen presentation system shows that T cells also respond to changes in cellular lipids. During the first phase of this proposal, the applicant has discovered phosphoisoprenoid antigens presented by CD1c proteins, determined the enzymatic basis of their biosynthesis and found that they activate T cells derived from the lesions of human patients with autoimmune thyroiditis. These studies also identified two previously unknown classes of lipopeptide antigens presented by CD1c and CD1a, which use fattyl acyl chains to anchor to CD1 proteins, leading to presentation of their peptide moieties to T cell receptors. Recent advances in the synthesis of lipid antigens, along with crystal structures showing the precise dimensions and shapes of CD1 antigen binding grooves, now allow detailed investigation of the molecular interactions among CD1, lipid antigens and T cell receptors. The continuation proposal uses dolichyl glycolipids and acylpeptides as model antigens to determine the mechanisms by which CD1a and CD1c present a carbohydrate moiety and a peptide moiety to human T cell receptors in vitro and during the course of autoimmune thyroiditis. Using synthetic antigen analogs, we will determine the influence of carbohydrate linkage, lipid size and peptide length for binding to recombinant CD1 proteins. CD1-lipid complexes will be tested for their ability to bind to and activate T cell receptors in vitro. Mass spectrometric analysis of lipids eluted from cellular CD1 proteins will identify the molecular structures of endogenous lipids loaded onto CD1 proteins in cells. Last, existing and newly discovered lipid antigens will be tested for their ability to be recognized by polyclonal T cells from the thyroid glands and peripheral blood of human patients with Graves'disease and Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Relevance to public health. These studies provide a new model for understanding the molecular targets of T cells in a common human autoimmune disease, which is highly organ-specific. Further, determination of the specific size and chemical characteristics of lipids that bind to CD1 and activate T cells provides the necessary information for design of immunomodulatory lipids that can be applied as drugs to increase, decrease or polarize the functions of human T cells in vivo.
| Cotton, Rachel N; Shahine, Adam; Rossjohn, Jamie et al. (2018) Lipids hide or step aside for CD1-autoreactive T cell receptors. Curr Opin Immunol 52:93-99 |
| Wun, Kwok S; Reijneveld, Josephine F; Cheng, Tan-Yun et al. (2018) T cell autoreactivity directed toward CD1c itself rather than toward carried self lipids. Nat Immunol 19:397-406 |
| Shahine, Adam; Van Rhijn, Ildiko; Cheng, Tan-Yun et al. (2017) A molecular basis of human T cell receptor autoreactivity toward self-phospholipids. Sci Immunol 2: |
| Brennan, Patrick J; Cheng, Tan-Yun; Pellicci, Daniel G et al. (2017) Structural determination of lipid antigens captured at the CD1d-T-cell receptor interface. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 114:8348-8353 |
| Moody, D Branch; Cotton, Rachel N (2017) Four pathways of CD1 antigen presentation to T cells. Curr Opin Immunol 46:127-133 |
| Huang, Shouxiong; Moody, D Branch (2016) Donor-unrestricted T cells in the human CD1 system. Immunogenetics 68:577-96 |
| Roy, Sobhan; Ly, Dalam; Castro, Caitlin D et al. (2016) Molecular Analysis of Lipid-Reactive V?1 ?? T Cells Identified by CD1c Tetramers. J Immunol 196:1933-42 |
| Kasprowicz, Victoria O; Cheng, Tan-Yun; Ndung'u, Thumbi et al. (2016) HIV Disrupts Human T Cells That Target Mycobacterial Glycolipids. J Infect Dis 213:628-33 |
| Van Rhijn, Ildiko; Moody, D Branch (2015) CD1 and mycobacterial lipids activate human T cells. Immunol Rev 264:138-53 |
| Godfrey, Dale I; Uldrich, Adam P; McCluskey, James et al. (2015) The burgeoning family of unconventional T cells. Nat Immunol 16:1114-23 |
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