Use of Herpesvirus saimiri-immortalized macaque CD4 + T cell clones as stimulators and targets for assessment of CTL responses in macaque/AIDS models

• Published in: Journal of immunological methods 1999-11, Vol.230 (1), p.47-58
• Main Authors: Kumar, Anil, Stipp, Heather L, Sheffer, Darlene, Narayan, Opendra
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - immunology; Animals; Antigens, CD - metabolism; Antigens, Viral; CD4 + T cells; CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes - immunology; Cell Transformation, Viral; Chimera - immunology; Clone Cells; CTL; Cytotoxicity Tests, Immunologic; Disease Models, Animal; Herpesvirus 2, Saimiriine - immunology; Herpesvirus saimiri; HIV - immunology; HIV - pathogenicity; HIV Antigens; Humans; Interleukin-2 - pharmacology; Macaca nemestrina; Macaque; Simian Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - immunology; Simian Immunodeficiency Virus - immunology; Simian Immunodeficiency Virus - pathogenicity; T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic - immunology
• ISSN: 0022-1759; 1872-7905
• DOI: 10.1016/S0022-1759(99)00123-4

Herpesvirus saimiri (HVS), a nonhuman primate γ herpes virus, was used to immortalize pig-tailed macaque CD4 + T lymphocytes. The HVS-immortalized T cell lines were used to develop CD4 + T cell clones from two animals. Three CD4 + T cell clones were further characterized for the expression of cell surface markers. All expressed CD2, CD4, CD58, CD69 and CD80 and therefore resembled activated T cells. These clones required exogenous IL-2 for efficient growth and were found to be highly susceptible to infection by the challenge virus, Chimeric simian/human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV KU-1). They could also be productively infected not only by the quasispecies of the challenge virus (SHIV KU-1/PDJ and SHIV KU-1/PNA, isolated from macaque PDj and PNa, respectively) but also by a different chimeric simian/human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV 89.6P) and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV MAC239). The virus-infected CD4 + T cell clones were also used as stimulators for generation of CTL effectors. These effectors exhibited excellent virus-specific lysis in chromium-release assays when syngenic SHIV KU-1 infected autologous CD4 + T cell clones were used as targets. The target cell lysis was virus specific, as uninfected control cells showed no or minimal lysis.