Presentation of the Goodpasture Autoantigen Requires Proteolytic Unlocking Steps That Destroy Prominent T Cell Epitopes

Abstract

The most abundant autoreactive T cells in patients with Goodpasture’s disease are specific for peptides in the autoantigen that have high affinity for the disease-associated HLA class II molecule, DR15. How can such T cells escape self-tolerance mechanisms? This study showed that these peptides are highly susceptible to destruction in the earliest stages of antigen processing, and some must be cleaved for antigen digestion to be possible (“unlocking”). Goodpasture autoantigen [collagen α3(IV)NC1; approximately 31 kD] that was incubated with B cell lysosomes was cleaved within a few minutes to form approximately 9- and approximately 22-kD fragments, then increasing quantities of smaller peptides. The processing was completely abrogated by pepstatin A, a specific inhibitor of cathepsin D/E, even though lysosomal extracts contain a rich array of proteases. Purified cathepsin D generated the same major α3(IV)NC1 fragments as entire lysosomes, suggesting that cathepsin D cleavages are required to initiate α3(IV)NC1 processing. The initial unlocking cleavages destroyed two major self-epitopes, and subsequent preferred cleavages destroyed all of the other T cell epitopes that are recognized by most patients’ autoreactive T cells. The responses of T cell clones that are specific for a major disease-associated peptide to antigen-pulsed intact antigen-presenting cells were substantially enhanced by pepstatin A treatment. Therefore, cathepsin D activity significantly diminishes presentation of α3(IV)NC1 peptides that are recognized by patients’ T cells by destroying the peptides in early processing. These observations can explain why the mature T cell repertoire includes reactivity toward these self-peptides and suggests that a key factor in disease initiation is likely to be a shift in antigen processing.

In autoimmune diseases, the immune system targets molecules to which tolerance is normally maintained by a variety of mechanisms. A number of hypotheses explain how this may occur, including, for example, previous “unawareness” of the antigen because of its protected location, haptenization, a change in autoantigen sequence or folding, molecular mimicry, altered thresholds for proinflammatory signaling, or impaired normal tolerance mechanisms. The last two mechanisms are likely to predispose to autoimmunity to multiple autoantigens and so are less likely to be relevant to organ-specific diseases.

Goodpasture’s (anti–glomerular basement membrane [anti-GBM]) disease is the best understood renal organ–specific autoimmune disease. It is characterized by antibody and T lymphocyte (T cell) reactivity to the NC1 domain of a tissue-specific isoform of type IV collagen, α3(IV)NC1 (¹). Patients with recent-onset Goodpasture’s disease have in their peripheral blood CD4⁺ T lymphocytes that proliferate and make IFN-γ when incubated with the Goodpasture autoantigen (^2,3). Recent work has demonstrated that the fine specificity of patients’ α3(IV)NC1-reactive T cells is highly consistent between patients and that the predominant α3(IV)NC1-reactive T cells are specific for peptides that have high affinity for the disease-associated HLA DR15 class II molecule (^3–5). These data raise the important question of how such T cells avoid deletion or immunoregulation by the normal tolerance mechanisms.

It is possible to rule out that the restricted tissue distribution and very slow turnover of α3(IV) collagen might lead to a relative lack of immunoregulatory mechanisms. We and others have demonstrated that the Goodpasture antigen is expressed in human thymus (^6,7). Therefore, any failure to develop tolerance to high-affinity peptides from this antigen is likely to be a consequence of the failure of antigen-presenting cells (APC) to generate them or a failure to generate them in a context that leads to immunoregulation.

There is clear evidence that processing factors exert a powerful influence on the presentation of α3(IV)NC1 peptides. Biochemical analysis of the α3(IV)NC1 peptides that bound to HLA-DR15 on the surface of antigen-pulsed APC found that the most abundantly presented α3(IV)NC1 peptides were not those with highest affinity for HLA-DR15 (^8,9). Therefore, processing factors must prevent peptides with higher affinity for DR15 from gaining access to MHC class II molecules within APC. Similar conclusions have been reached in experiments with other antigens (¹⁰).

We examined the hypothesis that the disease-associated peptides in Goodpasture’s disease are particularly susceptible to proteolytic destruction in APC. We focused on the four α3(IV)NC1 peptides that contain epitopes that are recognized by T cells from all six patients (the two disease-associated peptides dap_131–150 and dap_71–90) and from four of six patients (dap_1–20 and dap_31–50) (³). The results confirmed that the disease-associated peptides are destroyed early and furthermore showed that cleavages of two of them were obligate early steps in the sequential proteolysis of the antigen by lysosomes.

Materials and Methods

Antigens, Enzymes, and Cells

Cathepsin D that was purified from human liver was obtained from Athen Research & Technology (Athens, GA). Asparagine endopeptidase (AEP) was donated by Prof. C. Watts (University of Dundee, Dundee, UK). Production of recombinant α3(IV) NC1 [r-α3(IV) NC1] was as described before (⁸). The synthetic peptides were as described before (⁹). Lysosomal extracts were prepared from Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) transformed B cells as described previously (¹¹). The DR15-expressing EBV-transformed B cell lines LCL013, 041, and 061 were donated by Prof. D. Crawford (University of Edinburgh, UK).

Digestion of r-3(IV) NC1

Lysosomal extracts were incubated at 37°C with r-α3(IV)NC1 in 10 mM dithiothreitol (DTT), 50 mM citrate (pH 4.6), and the indicated protease inhibitors at the following concentrations: Pepstatin A 10 μM, iodoacetic acid 14 mM, and PMSF 14 mM. Digests were analyzed by SDS-PAGE. For digests with purified enzymes, r-α3(IV)NC1 (100 μg) was dissolved in 8 M urea and coated onto S-Sepharose 6B beads (Sigma, St. Louis, MO) in 8 M urea and 50 mM Tris (pH 7.8) carried in 1.5 ml of Mobicol (VH Bio, Gateshead, UK) spin columns. Adsorbed protein was reduced by incubation in 10 mM DTT at 56°C for 45 min; washed with UHQ water (Millipore, Billerica, MA); and then suspended either with 1 μg of human liver cathepsin D (Athen Research & Technology) in 50 μl of tetramethylammonium formate (25% wt, pH 4.5; Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO) or with 2 mU of AEP in 50 μl of 80 mM citrate, 240 mM Na₂HPO₄, 1 mM EDTA, and 2 mM DTT (pH 5.8). Peptides that were released by digestion after 5 min to 2 h were recovered from the supernatant by centrifugation and from the beads by washing with 20% acetonitrile 1% tri-fluoroacetic acid (Romil, Cambridge, UK) and 1 M NH₄OH. Recovered peptides were combined, then divided into aliquots, dried under vacuum, and stored at −80°C.

Sequence Determinations

For N-terminal sequencing of fragments that were visualized by SDS-PAGE, gels were blotted onto polyvinylidene difluoride membranes and selected fragments were cut out and submitted for Edman degradation. Peptides were sequenced by a battery of mass spectrometric techniques, including matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight with Mass and Composition analysis (¹²) and daughter ion generation in a Finnigan LCQ mass spectrometer (ThermoFisher Scientific, Waltham, MA) followed by database and manual interpretation of daughter ion spectra.

Generation of Hybridomas

DR15-transgenic Balb/c mice were immunized with 50 μg of dap_131–150 in complete Freund adjuvant with appropriate UK Home Office approvals. Splenocytes and lymph nodes were recovered after 7 to 10 d and expanded in vitro with three cycles of re-stimulation with dap_131–150, expansion with rIL-2 at 20U/ml, and resting with rIL-2 at 2 U/ml. Surviving T cells were fused BW5147 [T cell recptor αβ] (¹³) cells (a donation from Dr. John Robinson, Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK) using the polyethylene glycol method and cloned by limiting dilution. Clones that expressed T cell receptor αβ and CD4 were screened for IL-2 production in response to dap_131–150 presented by mitomycin C–treated DR15-expressing splenocytes. IL-2 was measured by ELISA (R&D DuoSet, Minneapolis, MN).

To identify clones that recognized α3(IV)NC1 epitopes that are naturally processed from intact α3(IV)NC1, DR15 B cells that were intact or fixed by incubation in 0.5% paraformaldehyde for 30 min at room temperature were pulsed with 7 μM AS346 or α3(IV)NC1 for 4 to 6 h, then washed and added to 0.5 × 10⁵ of selected T hybridomas. IL-2 production at 24 h was measured by ELISA as above. The clone ha3p132.2 was selected as representative of a number of clones that produced larger amounts of IL-2 when incubated with dap_131–150 or intact α3(IV)NC1 and used for all of the assays reported herein.

Fine Specificity of Patients’ T Cells

The harvesting and initial preparation of T cells from patients with recent-onset Goodpasture’s disease was as we have described before (³). For assessment of fine specificity of α3(IV)NC1-specific T cells, 2 × 10⁵ purified peripheral blood mononuclear cells were incubated with 10 μg/ml selected α3(IV)NC1 peptides for 72 h at 37°C, then IFN-γ and IL-2 were measured in the culture supernatant by BD cytometric bead array (BD Bioscience, San Jose, CA) and proliferation measured from incorporation of ³H thymidine during an 18-h period.

Antigen Presentation Assays

DR15+ve EBV transformed B cells (1 × 10⁵) or phorbyl myristate acetate–differentiated IFN-γ–activated THP1 cells were pretreated with pepstatin A (Sigma) for 30 min at 4°C, then 3.5 μM dap_131–150 or α3(IV)NC1 was added and the cells were incubated at 37°C for 2 to 12 h. At the end of the incubation periods, processing was terminated by fixation with 0.5% paraformaldehyde for 30 min, the APC were extensively washed, 0.25 × 10⁵ ha3p132.2 T hybridoma cells were added, and the cultures were incubated for an additional 24 h, at the end of which IL-2 production was measured by ELISA as described.

Results

α3(IV)NC1 Is Rapidly Cleaved by Lysosomal Proteases

To examine endolysosomal processing of α3(IV)NC1 under controlled conditions, we used the system described by Watts et al. (^11,14). Antigen was incubated at 37°C with freshly disrupted lysosomes that were purified from human EBV-transformed B cells and degradation followed by SDS-PAGE and mass spectrometric peptide analysis.

SDS-PAGE (Figure 1) demonstrated that intact α3(IV)NC1 was progressively depleted during the 120-min incubation with early appearance (by 5 min) of two strongly stained fragments (at approximately 22 and 9 kD) and subsequent appearance of two additional distinct bands (at 4.5 and 6 kD) and numerous weaker bands. It was striking that several large fragments were momentarily very distinct in the digests because it suggested that processing might proceed to some extent along a consistent pathway such that fragments that were relatively resistant to further processing could accumulate.

Cathepsin D/E Activity Is Required to Unlock α3(IV)NC1 to Further Lysosomal Processing

To identify the responsible proteases, we determined the influence of class-specific protease inhibitors on the appearance of early fragments during lysosomal processing. Pepstatin A, an inhibitor of aspartate proteases, but not inhibitors of cysteine or serine proteases prevented formation of early fragments (Figure 2A). Indeed, in the presence of pepstatin A, no discernible digestion of α3(IV)NC1 had occurred by 120 min, even though lysosomes contain a rich array of proteases that are not sensitive to this protease inhibitor. Therefore, processing of α3(IV)NC1 by the host of proteases in human B cell lysosomes requires a critical aspartate protease activity that unlocks the otherwise protease-resistant molecule for further processing by lysosomal proteases.

Cathepsin D and cathepsin E are the major pepstatin A–sensitive aspartate proteases that are known to occur within lysosomes. We chose first to investigate cathepsin D because it is more prevalent than cathepsin E, and it had a similar but slightly wider specificity for substrates within α3(IV)NC1 when the two proteases were compared with α3(IV)NC1 peptides (manuscript in preparation). Incubation of α3(IV)NC1 with purified human cathepsin D yielded fragments with very similar sizes and time course of appearance as with lysosomal extracts (Figure 1). Moreover, Edman degradation of lysosome and cathepsin D–generated fragments that appeared similar by SDS-PAGE showed identical or probably identical N-terminal amino acid sequences (Table 1, Figure 3B). For example, the N-terminal sequence that was determined for the 22-kD band 1 that was recovered from the lysosomal and cathepsin D digests was in both cases FVQGN. Similarly, the sequences of the heavier components of the 9-kD band 2 (band 2a) were identical and those of the 6-kD (band 3) and 4.5-kD (band 4) bands probably identical from both types of digest. The N-terminal sequences of the lighter approximately 9-kD bands 2 (band 2b) were TSAGS from the lysosome digest and IMFTSAGS from the cathepsin D digest. Because the TSAGS fragment did not occur in lysosomal digests that were treated with pepstatin A, and neither cathepsin D nor E cuts α3(IV)NC1 peptides at IMFTSAG (manuscript in preparation), it is likely that the TSAGS fragment was generated by an initial cathepsin D/E cleavage generating IMFTSAGS, followed by removal of the IMF residues by one of the exopeptidases that are active in lysosomal extracts.

Therefore, lysosomal processing of α3(IV)NC1 proceeds only after initial unlocking proteolytic events that are mediated by a pepstatin A–sensitive lysosomal protease. Because the unlocking protease is either cathepsin D itself or a protease with indistinguishable substrate specificity, we hereafter refer to this activity simply as cathepsin D.

Major Epitopes Recognized by Patients’ Autoreactive T Cells Are Destroyed during Early Processing In Vitro

Next we inferred the sites of early processing of α3(IV)NC1 and examined their location relative to epitopes that are recognized by patients’ T cells (Figure 3, A and B). Cleavage at SFL₃₈ FVQ was clearly identified as an early event that gives rise to the N-termini of two prominent early fragments and very likely the C termini of two other prominent fragments. Note that the C-termini of the larger fragments were not directly determined but located to within 5 to 10 amino acids from their known N-termini, and from their molecular weights estimated by SDS-PAGE. Similarly, cleavages at FSF₁₄₇ IMF, LFC₆₉ NVN, and SFW₁₉₆ LAS were inferred to be early processing events. Strikingly, two of the early cleavages mapped within two of the four peptides that stimulated patients’ T cells. Specifically, the peptide bond SFL₃₈ FVQ is within dap_31–50 and FSF₁₄₇ IMF within dap_131–150, potentially destroying T cell epitopes.

Because early processing seemed to correlate with the specificities of patients’ autoreactive T cells, we sought to identify more fully the earliest cleaved peptide bonds in α3(IV)NC1 by examining the digests for small α3(IV)NC1 fragments that are invisible to SDS-PAGE. For these experiments, α3(IV)NC1 was incubated with purified lysosomal proteases rather than entire lysosomal extracts because of the difficulty in discerning peptide fragments of α3(IV)NC1 in complex lysosomal digests. Cathepsin D was chosen because of its important role in early α3(IV)NC1 processing and AEP because it is crucial in early processing of other globular antigens, including tetanus toxoid c-fragment and myelin basic protein (MBP) (¹⁵).

To infer the earliest cut peptide bonds, we identified α3(IV)NC1 peptides that were released after just 5 min of digestion with cathepsin D. Sequence was determined for 23 α3(IV)NC1 peptides, shown in full in Supplementary Information and diagrammatically in Figure 3C. Twelve of the early-released peptides had NH₂- or COOH-termini generated by the already-identified early cleavages (10 by SFL₃₈ FVQ, one by FSF₁₄₇ IMF, and one by SFW₁₉₆ LAS). Ten had sequences that began FVQ (within dap_31–50), re-confirming the SFL₃₈ FVQ peptide bond as highly preferred by cathepsin D, but all had different C-termini, suggesting that cathepsin D has little preference among several potentially scissile peptide bonds in α3(IV)NC1 immediately C-terminal to SFL₃₈ FVQ. In contrast, only one peptide fragment was found indicative of the early cleavages FSF₁₄₇ IMF and SFW₁₉₆ LAS, suggesting that cathepsin D has strong preference to make subsequent cuts at particular nearby peptide bonds, specifically, ISL₁₄₁ WKG N-terminal to FSF₁₄₇ IMF releasing the fragment WKGFSF and ERM₂₀₅ FRK C-terminal to SFW₁₉₆ LAS releasing the peptide LASLNPERM. The peptide bonds ISL₁₄₁ WKGFSF₁₄₇ IMF were never found intact in any fragment smaller than 22 kD, so it is likely that both peptide bonds are similarly highly susceptible to early proteolysis. Also, one of the prominent early-released peptides indicated that cleavage at RGF₁₀ VFT, destroying dap_1–20, is an early event and possibly indispensable because no peptide was found with RGF₁₀ VFT intact.

Taken together, the data identified 11 peptide bonds that were cleaved in early processing (Figure 3D). Among them, they destroy all conceivable DR15-binding subsequences of all 4 α3(IV)NC1 peptides that stimulate most patients’ T cells. Importantly, no fragment of α3(IV)NC1 smaller than 6 kD was found to contain any of the T cell epitopes intact.

The techniques similarly were applied to investigate α3(IV)NC1 processing by AEP. Four peptides were released by AEP treatment of intact α3(IV)NC1, indicative of cuts after five of the nine asparagines in α3(IV)NC1 (Figure 4). Remarkably, all of the scissile asparagines were in the vicinity of (two of five) or within (three of five) the sequence of the T cell self-epitope that contained dap_71–90. The other four asparagines are presumably less accessible to AEP within intact α3(IV)NC1 because all nine asparagines were substrates for AEP when presented in the form of short synthetic peptides (data not shown). Note that although AEP released fragments from intact α3(IV)NC1, its action was insufficient to unlock α3(IV)NC1 in the presence of pepstatin A (Figure 2). This contrasts with lysosomal processing of tetanus toxoid c-fragment, in which AEP action alone is sufficient to unlock the antigens to further processing (¹¹).

Aspartate Protease Activity within Intact Human APC Affects Presentation of Goodpasture Antigen

Next we investigated whether the propensity of lysosomal aspartate protease activity to destroy α3(IV)NC1 T cell epitopes in vitro had discernible consequences in vivo. To detect presentation of α3(IV)NC1 peptides by human APC, we made α3(IV)NC1 peptide-specific DR15-restricted murine T cell hybridomas in mice that were engineered to express HLA DR15 (donated by Dr. Altmann and described in reference [¹⁶]). Nine hybridomas, including ha3p132.2, 132.3, and 133.6, had the properties of responding to dap_131–150 with fine specificity that was indistinguishable (with 15mer peptides overlapping by 10) from patients’ T cells (Figure 5). DR15 restriction was confirmed by demonstrating responses to dap_131–150 presented by only DR15-expressing B cell lines (data not shown). Analysis of all possible interactions between the common sequence of the stimulatory peptides and DR15 molecules found only one orientation with high predicted affinity (⁵), so the hybridomas and patients’ T cells almost certainly recognize the peptide α3(IV)NC1_139–148 with sequence ISLWKGFSFI engaging pockets in the peptide binding groove as shown in Table 2.

The hybrids were first used to investigate whether B cells that were incubated with intact α3(IV)NC1 were able to present the ISLWKGFSFI epitope at all, in view of its containing two peptide bonds that are known to be cut in early processing by B cell lysosomes in vitro. As shown in Figure 5D, B cells that were incubated with abundant (200 μg/ml, approximately 7 μM) α3(IV)NC1 were able to present ISLWKGFSFI, as assessed by IL-2 production by ha3p132.2. Presentation was processing dependent because it was inhibited by fixation (Figure 5D) or chloroquine-treatment of the B cells (data not shown). Therefore, processing of α3(IV)NC1 within intact cells does generate some ISLWKGFSFI, which is presented on DR15 in the conformation that is recognized by ha3p132.2.

Next the hybrids were used to interrogate the level of ISLWKGFSFI presentation on the surface of living APC that were treated with pepstatin A. ISLWKGFSFI presentation from intact α3(IV)NC1 was enhanced two- to four-fold by 10 mM pepstatin A treatment of the APC. This was not an APC-specific or T hybrid–specific phenomenon because it was observed for all of the DR15-expressing human B cell lines that were studied and for a human macrophage cell line, using any of three of our ISLWKGFSFI-specific T hybridomas (Figure 6A). The effect of pepstatin A on presentation of peptide varied from no effect, as expected for processing-independent presentation of peptide, to up to two-fold enhancement. Enhancement was most striking for ThP1 cells and almost certainly related to the high levels of free cathepsin D that were detectable in medium that was conditioned by these cells (data not shown). The effects of pepstatin A were in striking contrast to previous reports of the effect of pepstatin A (^17–19) that have shown epitope-specific effects that vary between strong inhibition of presentation and no discernible effect, thought to reflect the varying importance of aspartate proteases in generating particular epitopes (Figure 6A, bottom 8 pairs of bars). The effect of pepstatin A was further examined by determination of the time course and dosage dependence of ISLWKGFSFI presentation by the LCL061 B cell line interrogated with the ha3p132.2 T hybrid. Presentation of ISLWKGFSFI from intact α3(IV)NC1 was two- to three-fold less than from molar equivalent quantities of ISLWKGFSFI-containing peptide and exhibited dosage-dependent enhancement by pepstatin A (Figure 6, B and C). Taken together, the results indicate that the aspartate protease activity in two different human APC types is sufficient to reduce presentation of the ISLWKGFSFI epitope, at least under cell culture conditions.

Discussion

The results demonstrate that the level of aspartate protease activity within human EBV-transformed B cells is sufficient to diminish substantially the presentation of a key epitope in Goodpasture’s disease, despite the epitope’s having high affinity for HLA DR15 molecules. This echoes the observation of Manoury et al. (²⁰) that AEP activity within APC destroys a key epitope in multiple sclerosis and adds credence to the hypothesis that destructive processing may direct the specificities of autoreactive T cells by preventing constitutive presentation of self-epitopes at sufficient levels to drive secure self-tolerance (^10,21). Whereas AEP activity seems critical in shaping autoimmunity to MBP, our data suggest that aspartate proteases, almost certainly cathepsin D, are critical in shaping autoimmunity to α3(IV)NC1. It is interesting that a prominent role for cathepsin D in destructively limiting antigen presentation was also found in a study of myoglobin processing (²²). Thus, cathepsin D cleavage of α3(IV)NC1 and AEP cleavage of MBP are antigen-processing mechanisms that diminish presentation of potential epitopes within antigens, analogous to the processing mechanisms that are thought to account for certain epitopes’ behaving as poorly presented “cryptic epitopes” in animal models (²³).

We suggest that the influence of destructive processing could run much deeper. In the case of α3(IV)NC1, all of the major self-epitopes contain highly scissile peptide bonds, and fragments that are indicative of cuts within all but one were detected at the earliest stages of processing. Therefore, destructive processing could diminish presentation of all of the important self-epitopes in α3(IV)NC1. However, some anomalies from our previous work that examined peptides that were eluted from DR15 molecules indicate that other processing factors must also be influential. For example, we eluted from α3(IV)NC1-pulsed B cells peptides that contained intact the highly scissile sequence SFL₃₈ FVQ (⁸). The peptides comprised a nested set that seemed to bind to DR15 via VPLYSGFSF₃₈. A possible explanation is suggested from consideration of how DR15 might interact with intact α3(IV)NC1. The DR15-binding VPLYSGFSF core sequence is almost entirely exposed on the surface of α3(IV)NC1, where it might be able to bind DR15 before substantial proteolysis, gaining steric protection for YSG₃₄ FSF and SFL₃₈ FVQ, and presumably directing processing via a different route (²⁴).

If indeed destructive processing does suppress constitutive presentation of some of the epitopes that are recognized by patients’ T cells in autoimmune disease, how are those epitopes ever presented to drive pathogenesis? The results in the context of previous studies of α3(IV)NC1 processing suggest an explanation, at least for the ISLWKGFSFI epitope for which the data are most complete. Peptides that contain this epitope have the highest affinity of all of the α3(IV)NC1 peptides that we have studied but are not presented by DR15-bearing B cells at sufficient level for biochemical detection, whereas other lower DR15-affinity peptides are. The new data demonstrate that rapid destruction by endosomal aspartate proteases can account for the deficit of ISLWKGFSFI but, importantly, that sufficient ISLWKGFSFI to stimulate T cells can be presented by DR15-bearing B cells under particular conditions, such as culture in high concentrations of α3(IV)NC1, and that partial inhibition of the activity of endosomal aspartate proteases is sufficient to increase its presentation substantially. Therefore, presentation of ISLWKGFSFI is likely to be low level rather than absent and so could be a sufficient stimulus to drive T cells that are already activated by, for example, a cross-reactive epitope from an infecting organism. Moreover, the level of ISLWKGFSFI presentation will be modulated by the balance of positive factors, such as the abundance of α3(IV)NC1 and possibly the level of DR15 expression, and negative factors, including the activity of endosomal aspartate proteases. It is notable in this regard that many of the stimuli that are reported to trigger Goodpasture’s disease would be expected to increase turnover of basement membrane α3(IV)NC1 (²⁵), and the levels of protease activity within APC are reported to vary with cell type and activation status (²⁶).

This is the second report to associate destructive processing with the specificity of autoreactive T cells, so the question arises as to the general importance of the mechanism. The two autoantigens, MBP and α3(IV)NC1, share several features. Both are tightly folded, extensively disulfide-bonded, protease-resistant cationic globular molecules that are processed only by lysosomes after unlocking cleavages at particular peptide bonds. It is striking that in both cases, the unlocking cleavages destroy peptides that have high affinity for HLA DR15 and are major targets of autoimmune attack. This set of circumstances may not be rare, because many autoantigens are globular with disulfide bonds, and a requirement for unlocking cleavages has now been reported for several proteins. Clearly, evaluation of the general importance of destructive processing in defining the specificity of autoreactive T cells will require analysis of processing of more autoantigens, but of all of the ways processing could influence presentation, unlocking deserves earnest focus because it more than any other processing event is likely to be a consistent occurrence that could credibly influence the scope of self-tolerance that is built up during a life time and credibly be subverted, in a stimulating milieu, only infrequently to precipitate autoimmune disease at close to the low frequency with which disease occurs in human.

Disclosures

None.

Figure 1: Time course of processing of α3(IV)NC1 by human lysosomes. SDS-PAGE analysis of purified recombinant α3(IV) NC1 [r-α3(IV)NC1] and lysosomes from human B cells run separately (rightmost two lanes) or after combination for the indicated intervals (lanes headed Lys). Several darker staining higher mobility bands that were seen only in combined samples were presumed to be fragments of α3(IV)NC1. The mobility and time scale of appearance of the α3(IV)NC1 fragments was similar when α3(IV)NC1 was digested with lysosomes or purified human cathepsin D (interspersed lanes labeled CD).

Figure 2: Influence of protease inhibitors on digestion of α3(IV)NC1 by lysosomal extracts and cathepsin D. SDS-PAGE of 30 min digests with the indicated components. The principal α3(IV)NC1 fragments that were generated within minutes of exposure to purified lysosomes have the same mobility as those that were generated by cathepsin D. Inhibition of cathepsin D/E activity with pepstatin A (PepA) prevents formation of the fragments, whereas other broad-specificity protease inhibitors of serine (PMSF) or cysteine proteases (iodoacetic acid [IAA]) have no effect.

Figure 3: Locations of processing sites and T cell epitopes within α3(IV)NC1. Bars are used in B and C to depict the α3(IV)NC1 fragments that were detected in lysosomal (□) or purified cathepsin D digests (□ and □; all fragments that were found in lysosome digests were also found in cathepsin D digest) relative to the sequence of the intact α3(IV)NC1 molecule shown in A. Vertical dotted lines highlight preferred cleavages that cut within disease-associated peptides. Numbering is of amino acid residues relative to the sequence SPAT at the beginning of the NC1 domain of α3(IV); shaded insets in the bar, representing intact α3(IV)NC1, in A indicate the locations of epitopes that are recognized by patients’ autoreactive T cells and the core sequences of major (biochemically identified) naturally processed and presented nested sets of peptides (see key); hatching at the C-termini of the larger fragments indicates the uncertainty as to the exact C-terminus of fragments that were identified by SDS-PAGE + Edman degradation. (D) Amino acid sequences in the vicinity of peptides bonds inferred to be cut in early processing. The boxed motifs are reasoned to be important in unlocking the molecule to further processing.

Figure 4: Asparagine endopeptidase (AEP) cuts α3(IV)NC1 at multiple sites within dap_71–90. The bars depict the four peptides that were identified in AEP digests of α3(IV)NC1 with layout and numbering as in Figure 3. The sequences of the peptides are shown in the bottom panel. Vertical dotted lines identify the nine asparagine residues in α3(IV)NC1. Cuts after asparagine residues 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 accounted for all of the peptides observed.

Figure 5: Characteristics of T cell hybridomas compared with patients’ T cells. (A through C) Specificity: Comparison of the responses of a representative T cell hybridoma (ha3p132.2; A) and a patient’s (EB#01; B and C) peripheral blood T cells with four overlapping α3(IV)NC1 peptides presented by DR15-homozygous Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-transformed B cell lines. Patient EB#01, like all patients whom we have studied with recent-onset Goodpasture’s disease (³), had peripheral blood T cells that proliferated to dap_131–150 and dap_71–90. Here responses are shown to short peptides that overlap dap_131–150 (see Supplementary Table 1) to indicate the location of the principal epitope(s) more precisely. The hybridoma ha3p132.2 (selected from 12 with similar specificity) and the responding T cells from patient EB#1 most likely are responding to the core sequence ISLWKGFSF lying in the DR15 peptide-binding groove with side chains oriented into pockets as shown in Table 2. (D) The epitope that is recognized by ha3p132.2 is generated by human B cell processing of intact α3(IV)NC1. Note that processing is required because no response was observed when the antigen-presenting cells (APC) were lightly fixed before addition of intact α3(IV)NC1 or in other experiments (data not shown) in which APC were treated with chloroquine. The indicated concentrations of α3(IV)NC1 and AS346 equate to approximately equivalent molar concentrations of 7 μM.

Figure 6: Pepstatin A enhances the presentation of α3(IV)NC1_138–147 by B cells. (A) Production of IL-2 by T cell hybridomas was used as a measure of presentation of specific peptide by the indicated APC that were incubated with intact protein (▪) or short peptide (□). The bars show the percentage change in IL-2 production with addition on 10 μM pepstatin A. The top five pairs of bars show presentation of ISLWKGFSFI by DR15-expressing human EBV B cell lines (LCL013, LCL041, and LCL061) and ThP1 (a human monocyte/macrophage cell line). The bottom eight pairs of bars summarize results of published experiments in which pepstatin A was added to presentation assays using DR1-bearing mouse macrophages to present collagen II to the HCII-9.1 and 9.2 hybridomas (¹⁹) or A20 murine B cells to present ovalbumin to the DO11.10 hybridoma (¹⁷), or the anthrax protective antigen (PA) to five hybrids with different PA peptide specificity (¹⁸). (B) Time course of ISLWKGFSFI presentation by LCL061 that were incubated for 4 to 12 h with approximately 3.5 μM α3(IV)NC1 peptide (dotted lines) or the same molar concentration of intact α3(IV)NC1 (solid lines) as assessed by IL-2 production from ha3p132.2. Pepstatin A substantially increased ISLWKGFSF presentation from intact α3(IV)NC1 but had little effect on presentation of peptide. (C) Summary of results of four experiments using LCL061 as APC and ha3p132.2 to detect ISLWKGFSF presentation showing the change in IL-2 production when 1 or 10 μM pepstatin A was added to 6-h cultures of ha3p132.2. The figure depicts the percentage change in IL-2, compared with that produced in the absence of pepstatin A, as the median (solid bar), 25th and 75th centiles (box) and limits of data (whiskers), and the significance of the indicated comparisons as assessed by the unpaired t test.

Table 1: Edman degradation analysis of early fragmentsa

Table 2: Sequences of peptides

This work was supported by grants from the Medical Research Council of the UK.

DR15 transgenic mice were donated by Dr. D. Altmann (Imperial College, London, UK).