Original article Inhibition of collagen-induced arthritis by DNA vaccines encoding TCR Vβ5.2 and TCR Vβ8.2

作     者：GE Ping-ling MA Li-ping WANG Wei LI Yun ZHAO Wen-ming 

作者机构：Department of Transfusion Aerospace Center Hospital Beijing100049 China Department of Immunology Capital Medical University Beijing100069 China 

出 版 物：《Chinese Medical Journal》 (中华医学杂志（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2009年第122卷第9期

页      面：1039-1048页

核心收录：

学科分类：1002[医学-临床医学] 1001[医学-基础医学(可授医学、理学学位)] 100102[医学-免疫学] 10[医学] 

基　　金：This study was supported by a grant from the Natural Science Foundation of Beijing (No.7052011) 

主　　题：arthritis, collagen-induced T cell receptor vaccines, DNA 

摘      要：Background Arthritogenic T lymphocytes with common T cell receptor （TCR） Vβ clonotypes, infiltrating in the articulars of rheumatoid arthritis （RA） patients, play a central role in the pathogenesis of RA. TCR Vβ5.2 and TCR Vβ8.2 are the main pathogenic T cell clonotypes in the course of collagen-induced arthritis （CIA） progression in Lewis rats. To investigate a TCR-based immunotherapy for RA, we constructed recombinant DNA vaccines encoding TCR Vβ5.2 and TCR Vβ8.2, and evaluated the inhibitive effects of the two vaccines on CIA rats. Methods Genes encoding TCR Vβ5.2 and TCR Vβ8.2 were amplified by RT-PCR from spleen lymphocytes of Lewis rats and cloned into the eukaryotic expression vector pTargeT. The expression of vaccines was confirmed by RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. The inhibitive effects of the vaccines on articulars of CIA rats were assessed with arthritis index evaluation and histology. Interferon γ （IFN-γ） and interleukin （IL）-4 production by spleen lymphocytes were tested with enzyme-linked immunospot assay （ELISPOT） technique, the changes in peripheral CD4^＋ and CD8^＋ lymphocyte populations were tested by flow cytometry, and the level of anti-CII antibody in serum was assayed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay （ELISA）. Results Recombinant DNA vaccines pTargeT-TCR Vβ5.2 and pTargeT-pTCR Vβ8.2 were successfully constructed. Both vaccines inhibited CIA, which alleviated the arthritis index score （P 〈0.05）, decreased the level of IFN-γ （P 〈0.05）, and reduced the ratio of CD4^＋/CD8^＋ lymphocytes （P 〈0.05） and the anti-CII antibody in serum （P 〈0.05）. In addition, the histological change in DNA-vaccinated rats was less serious than CIA rats. Compared to pTCR Vβ 8.2 and pTCR Vβ 5.2 groups, the group that was injected with a combination of the two vaccines showed stronger inhibitive effects on CIA than either individual vaccine. Conclusion The recombinant plasmids pTargeT-TCR Vβ5.2 and pTargeT-TCR Vβ8.2 have obvious inhibatory effects on CIA rats and bet