MART-1 (51-61)

Melan-A/MART1 is a melanocytic differentiation antigen expressed by tumor cells of the majority of melanoma patients and, as such, is considered as a good target for melanoma immunotherapy. Nonetheless, the number of class I and II restricted Melan-A epitopes identified so far remains limited. Here we describe a new Melan-A/MART-1 epitope recognized in the context of HLA-DQa1*0101 and HLA-DQb1*0501, -DQb1*0502 or -DQb1*0504 molecules by a CD4+ T cell clone. This clone was obtained by in vitro stimulation of PBMC from a healthy donor by the Melan-A51-73 peptide previously reported to contain a HLA-DR4 epitope. The Melan-A51-73 peptide, therefore contains both HLA-DR4 and HLA-DQ5 restricted epitope. We further show that Melan-A51-63 is the minimal peptide optimally recognized by the HLA-DQ5 restricted CD4+ clone. Importantly, this clone specifically recognizes and kills tumor cell lines expressing Melan-A and either HLA-DQb1*0501, -DQb1*0504 or -DQb1*0502 molecules. Moreover, we could detect CD4+ T cells secreting IFN-gamma in response to Melan-A51-63 and Melan-A51-73 peptides among tumor infiltrating and blood lymphocytes from HLA-DQ5+ patients. This suggests that spontaneous CD4+ T cell responses against this HLA-DQ5 epitope occur in vivo. Together these data significantly increase the fraction of melanoma patients susceptible to benefit from a Melan-A class II restricted vaccine approach.

Several antigens, including the products encoded by the genes MAGE-1 and MAGE-3, are recognized on human melanoma cells by HLA-A1, HLA-A2, or HLA-Cw*1601*-restricted T cells on autologous or HLA-matched melanoma cell lines. T-cell recognition of naturally processed MHC class I-presented peptides, or alternatively synthetic peptides derived from MAGE-1 or MAGE-3, leads to cytokine release as well as to a cytotoxic T-cell response in these antimelanoma-directed polyclonal or clonal effector T-cell populations. Recent reports suggest that the activity of T lymphocytes infiltrating melanoma in vivo appears to be impaired. We report here the characterization of the in vitro (in the presence of 6000 IU interleukin 2) expanded tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) T-cell line PM2-B2 derived from a patient with rapidly progressing and therapy-resistant head and neck melanoma. The TIL cell line PM2-B2 did not lyse, but instead released granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor in response to the autologous tumor or HLA-A1-matched allogeneic tumor cell lines. The TIL line PM2-B2 did not kill the MHC class I natural killer/lymphokine-activated killer target cell lines Daudi or K562. The fine specificity of the TIL line PM2-B2 restricted by HLA-A1 was further characterized by evaluating specific granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor release in response to MHC class I-eluted peptides derived from HLA-A1(+) melanoma cell lines. TIL PM2-B2 failed to recognize the recently described HLA-A1-presented peptides derived from the gene products encoded by MAGE-1 or MAGE-3. PCR-based analysis of the freshly harvested tumor from patient PM2-B2 revealed the presence of message for the melanoma-associated gene products MAGE-1 and MAGE-3, but not for tyrosinase or MART-1/MELAN-A. Acid elution and high performance liquid chromatography fractionation of MHC class I-presented peptides from HLA-A1-matched melanoma cell lines 397 or 888 revealed that TIL PM2-B2 recognized at least three distinct peptide epitopes eluting in high performance liquid chromatographic bioactive fractions 5/6, 36, and 51/52. These bioactive peaks appeared to be shared among HLA-A1(+) melanoma cell lines. We suggest, based on this report, that HLA-A1-presented melanoma-derived peptides (other than those previously reported peptides derived from MAGE-1 or MAGE-3) may represent targets for TIL recognition as defined by cytokine release, but not cytotoxicity. Such an immune response differentially defined by cytokine release, but absent cytotoxic functions, may either reflect the impaired cytolytic function of the TIL population or reflect the inherent nature of HLA-A1-presented melanoma T-cell epitopes leading to cytokine release, but not to a cytotoxic T-cell response. Additionally, this report suggests that the individual T-cell immune response to melanoma may be rather complex, involving diverse T-cell effector functions (e.g., cytotoxicity or cytokine release), each of which should be evaluated in studies of antitumor-specific T-cell reactivity.

Suboptimal activation of T lymphocytes by tumor cells may contribute to the failure of the immune system to control tumor growth. We recently demonstrated that Melan-A/MART-1-reactive CTLs can be anergized by peptide analogues with partial agonist/antagonist functions, which selectively impair interleukin (IL)-2 release. Here we analyze the potential expression of partial agonist/antagonist peptides by tumor cells and their role in suboptimal T-cell activation. HLA-bound peptide fractions were eluted from HLA-A*0201/Melan-A/MART-1(+) melanoma cells and analyzed for reconstitution of the MART-1-specific T-cell epitope. Among the peptide fractions able to induce IFN-gamma release by MART-1-specific T cells, only fraction 43-44 activated IL-2 production by anti-MART-1 T cells, whereas the remaining two fractions acted as peptide antagonists by inhibiting IL-2 release in response to the native epitope. A comparable down-modulation of IL-2 release could also be induced by the MART-1-derived peptide 32-40, previously identified in one of the two anergizing fractions. A substantial deficit in IL-2 release was additionally detected in tumor-specific CD8(+) T cells infiltrating melanoma lesions. To overcome IL-2 impairment by peptide antagonists, anti-MART-1 T cells were generated by in vitro sensitization with the two optimized analogues Melan-A/MART-1(27-35) 1L (with superagonist features) and Melan-A/MART-1(26-35) 2L (with improved HLA-A*0201 binding). T cells raised with the superagonist Melan-A/MART-1(27-35) 1L showed resistance to the inhibition of IL-2 release mediated by melanoma-derived peptide fractions, whereas Melan-A/MART-1(26-35) 2L-specific T cells appeared to be as sensitive as T cells raised with the parental epitope. This resistance was associated with the enhanced ability of Melan-A/MART-1(27-35) 1L-specific T cells to release IL-2. Taken together, these data indicate that melanoma cells can process and present on their surface peptides inhibiting optimal T-cell activation against immunodominant epitopes and that the usage of optimized peptide analogues could represent a promising approach for overcoming tumor-induced immunosuppression and possibly designing more successful vaccines for cancer patients.