Adoptive Transfer of T Lymphocytes Sensitized against the Prion Protein Attenuates Prion Invasion in Scrapie-Infected Mice

• Published in: The Journal of immunology (1950) 2009-11, Vol.183 (10), p.6619-6628
• Main Authors: Gourdain, Pauline, Gregoire, Sylvie, Iken, Saci, Bachy, Veronique, Dorban, Gauthier, Chaigneau, Thomas, Debiec, Hanna, Bergot, Anne-Sophie, Renault, Isabelle, Aucouturier, Pierre, Carnaud, Claude
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adoptive Transfer; Animals; CD3 Complex - genetics; CD3 Complex - immunology; CD3 Complex - metabolism; DNA-Binding Proteins - genetics; DNA-Binding Proteins - immunology; DNA-Binding Proteins - metabolism; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Mice, Knockout; Prions - genetics; Prions - immunology; Prions - metabolism; Scrapie - prevention & control; Scrapie - therapy; Spleen - immunology; Spleen - pathology; T-Lymphocytes - immunology; T-Lymphocytes - transplantation
• ISSN: 0022-1767; 1550-6606
• DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.0804385

There is to date no effective way of preventing or curing neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer disease or transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. The idea of treating those conditions by immunological approaches has progressively emerged over the last ten years. Encouraging results have been reported in Alzheimer disease and in peripheral forms of mouse prion diseases following passive injection of Abs or active immunization against the peptides or proteins presumably at the origin of those disorders. Still, major difficulties persist due to some characteristics of those conditions such as slow evolution, brain location, uncertainties regarding precise pathogenic pathways, and, above all, the fact that the target Ag is self, meaning that it is poorly immunogenic and potentially harmful if tolerance was transgressed. To analyze some of those difficulties, we are developing adoptive cell transfer approaches. In this study, lymphocytes sensitized against the prion protein in nontolerant Prnp(-/-) mice were transferred into histocompatible wild-type recipients which were partly or totally devoid of their own lymphocytes. Under such conditions, we found that the engrafted T lymphocytes resisted peripheral tolerance, remained reactive for several months against epitopes of the prion protein, and significantly attenuated the progression of prions in secondary lymphoid organs with subsequent delay in the evolution of the neurological disease. Interestingly, those protective T lymphocytes secreted lymphokines and migrated more readily into the host CNS but did not appear to be engaged in cooperation with host B cells for Ab production.