Cancers (Jan 2020)

Rapid Assessment of Functional Avidity of Tumor-Specific T Cell Receptors Using an Antigen-Presenting Tumor Cell Line Electroporated with Full-Length Tumor Antigen mRNA

  • Diana Campillo-Davo,
  • Maarten Versteven,
  • Gils Roex,
  • Hans De Reu,
  • Sanne van der Heijden,
  • Sébastien Anguille,
  • Zwi N. Berneman,
  • Viggo F. I. Van Tendeloo,
  • Eva Lion

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers12020256
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 2
p. 256

Abstract

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The functional avidity of T-cell receptor (TCR)-engineered T cells towards their cognate epitope plays a crucial role in successfully targeting and killing tumor cells expressing the tumor-associated antigen (TAA). When evaluating in vitro functional T-cell avidity, an important aspect that is often neglected is the antigen-presenting cell (APC) used in the assay. Cell-based models for antigen-presentation, such as tumor cell lines, represent a valid alternative to autologous APCs due to their availability, off-the-shelf capabilities, and the broad range of possibilities for modification via DNA or messenger RNA (mRNA) transfection. To find a valuable model APC for in vitro validation of TAA Wilms’ tumor 1 (WT1)-specific TCRs, we tested four different WT1 peptide-pulsed HLA-A2+ tumor cell lines commonly used in T-cell stimulation assays. We found the multiple myeloma cell line U266 to be a suitable model APC to evaluate differences in mean functional avidity (EC50) values of transgenic TCRs following transfection in 2D3 Jurkat T cells. Next, to assess the dose-dependent antigen-specific responsiveness of WT1 TCR-engineered 2D3 T cells to endogenously processed epitopes, we electroporated U266 cells with different amounts of full-length antigen WT1 mRNA. Finally, we analyzed the functional avidity of WT1 TCR-transfected primary CD8 T cells towards WT1 mRNA-electroporated U266 cells. In this study, we demonstrate that both the APC and the antigen loading method (peptide pulsing versus full-length mRNA transfection) to analyze T-cell functional avidity have a significant impact on the EC50 values of a given TCR. For rapid assessment of the functional avidity of a cloned TCR towards its endogenously processed MHC I-restricted epitope, we showcase that the TAA mRNA-transfected U266 cell line is a suitable and versatile model APC.

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