Vaccine Adjuvants Alter TCR-Based Selection Thresholds Laurent Malherbe, Linda Mark, Nicolas Fazilleau, Louise J. McHeyzer-Williams, Michael G. McHeyzer-Williams  Immunity  Volume 28, Issue 5, Pages 698-709 (May 2008) DOI: 10.1016/j.immuni.2008.03.014 Copyright © 2008 Elsevier Inc. Terms and Conditions

Figure 1 Local Accumulation of Antigen-Specific Th Cells across Different Adjuvants (A and B) PCC-specific Th cells (Vα11+Vβ3+CD44hiCD62Llo) at day 7 in lymph nodes from B10.BR mice immunized with (A) Alum with (lower panels) or without PCC (upper panels) or (B) with PCC and the indicated adjuvant. Profiles gated on propidium iodide (PI)-negative cells that are CD4+B220−CD8−CD11b− and Vα11+Vβ3+ are shown as indicated with mean ± SEM (n ≥ 3) percentage of cells within insert box. (C) Total number of PCC-specific Th cells 7 days after immunization with Alum (n = 7), IFA (n = 6), CFA (n = 15), CpG (n = 6), and MPL (n = 25) with (bars) or without PCC (circles); means ± SEM; n ≥ 3; p ≤ 0.01 (∗∗) (two-tailed t test) comparing Alum or MPL to any other adjuvant. (D) Total number of PCC-specific Th cells 3, 5, 7, or 9 days after immunization with IFA and PCC. Mean ± SEM for at least three animals. Immunity 2008 28, 698-709DOI: (10.1016/j.immuni.2008.03.014) Copyright © 2008 Elsevier Inc. Terms and Conditions

Figure 2 Clonal Dominance without TLR Agonists or Antigen Depots Single-cell repertoire analysis of individual PCC-specific Th cells (Vα11+Vβ3+CD44hiCD62Llo) sorted from mice immunized with PCC and indicated adjuvant. (A) Each filled circle represents sequence from single cells representing the number of preferred CDR3 features known to be selected in the PCC response (TCR-α: E at α93; S at α 95; CDR3α length of 8aa; and TCRJ α 16, 17, 22, and 34. TCR-β: N at β100; A, G at β102; CDR3β length of 9aa; and TCRJ β 1.2 and 2.5). Cells with greater than or equal to six preferred features express restricted TCR of the dominant clonotype and the percentage ± SEM; across three individual animals with n = number of single cells used in the analysis displayed with individual animals contributing different numbers of sequences, Alum (n = 21, 23, and 16); IFA (n = 22, 18, and 18); CFA (n = 18, 17, and 18); CpG (n = 15, 16, and 17) MPL (n = 16, 19, and 17). (B) TCR sequences from the dominant clonotypes (greater than or equal to six preferred CDR3 features). Columns (left to right) show the following: individual CDR3α chain designation (based on amino acids at α93 and α95, CDR3α length, and J α usage); CDR3α, with positions α93E and α95S “highlighted” in black as canonical, motif length depicted; J α gene usage; individual CDR3β designation (based on amino acids at β100 and β102, CDR3β length and J β usage); CDR3β, with positions β100N and β102A or β102G “highlighted” in black as canonical, motif length depicted; Jβ gene segment usage; total number of “preferred” features in both CDR3 regions combined. (C) Penetrance of dominant clonotypes after priming with PCC and the indicated adjuvant as a percentage of dominant clonotypes and organized in the same order as (B) with summaries for each adjuvant across Jβ2.5 and Jβ1.2 usage as displayed. Immunity 2008 28, 698-709DOI: (10.1016/j.immuni.2008.03.014) Copyright © 2008 Elsevier Inc. Terms and Conditions

Figure 3 Adjuvants Skew TCRβ Chain Usage (A) Relative abundance of PCC-specific Th cells (Vα11+Vβ3+CD44hiCD62Llo) expressing Jβ1.2 or Jβ2.5 gene segments for the indicated adjuvant (mean ± SEM; n ≥ 3). (B) Predicted amino acid sequences of CDR3β regions mean ± SEM of five predominant clonotypes (n ≥ 3) for PCC-specific Th cells isolated from mice immunized with indicated adjuvant. (C) Total number of PCC-specific Th cells expressing the 5C.C7β (SLNNANSDY) rearrangement mean ± SEM n ≥ 3. Immunity 2008 28, 698-709DOI: (10.1016/j.immuni.2008.03.014) Copyright © 2008 Elsevier Inc. Terms and Conditions

Figure 4 Adjuvants Reset the TCR Selection Threshold PCC-specific Th cells as PI−CD8−B220−CD11b− cells expressing CD4 and Vα11, binding pMHCII tetramers, and high expression of CD44 displayed within the inserted box; percentage of cells mean ± SEM; n ≥ 3 at day 7 in lymph nodes from B10.BR mice immunized with (A) Alum with (lower panels) or without PCC (upper panels) or (B) with PCC and the indicated adjuvant. (C) shows total numbers of CD4+Vα11+pMHCII+CD44hiCD62Llo Th cells after immunization with (bars) or without (circles) PCC and the indicated adjuvant; means ± SEM; n ≥ 3; p ≤ 0.01 (∗∗) (two-tailed t test) comparing Alum or MPL to any other adjuvant. (D) shows the mean fluorescence intensity of pMHCII tetramer staining for PCC-specific Th cells after immunization with PCC and the indicated adjuvant (mean ± SEM; n ≥ 3). Immunity 2008 28, 698-709DOI: (10.1016/j.immuni.2008.03.014) Copyright © 2008 Elsevier Inc. Terms and Conditions

Figure 5 Blocking the Selection of Low-Affinity Clonotypes A total of 0.33 × 105 5C.C7β and 1.2 × 105 2B4β splenocytes were mixed and (A) stained with pMHCII tetramers for preimmune repertoire analysis or (B) transferred into Thy1.1 syngeneic hosts. Transferred mice were immunized with 400 μg PCC in IFA or MPL-based adjuvant. (A) shows representative probability contours of pMHCII tetramer staining versus Vα11 for 5C.C7β (left) and 2B4β (middle), the 5C.C7β/2B4β cell mixture as a profile of cells (right) and evaluation of cell origin after cell sorting (Vα11+pMHCII+), and RT-PCR for Jβ1.2/Jβ2.5 expression representing 5CC7β and 2B4β, respectively (bar graph). (B) shows representative probability contours of CD44 and CD90.2 expressions (right panel) by Vα11+ Vβ3+ (left panel) cells from draining lymph nodes of recipient mice 7 days after immunization with IFA (upper panels) or MPL-based adjuvant (lower panels); single antigen-experienced PCC-specific Th cells (Vα11+Vβ3+CD90.2+CD44hi) were sorted, and the relative abundance of 5C.C7β and 2B4β Th cells was evaluated by single-cell RT-PCR with Jβ1.2 and Jβ2.5 specific primers, respectively. Means ± SEM; n = 3 for each condition. Immunity 2008 28, 698-709DOI: (10.1016/j.immuni.2008.03.014) Copyright © 2008 Elsevier Inc. Terms and Conditions

Figure 6 TCR-Independent Enhancement of Clonal Accumulation (A) A total of 2 × 105 CFSE-labeled 5C.C7αβ splenocytes were transferred into syngeneic B10.BR hosts at the time of immunization (upper panels), 3 days (middle panels) or 5 days (lower panels) after immunization with PCC and IFA or MPL-based adjuvant. Representative probability contours of pMHCII tetramer staining versus CFSE for IFA (left) and MPL (middle) immunized recipients. Total number of Vα11+CFSElopMHCIITet+ cells in draining lymph nodes of recipients immunized with IFA or MPL-based adjuvant in bar graphs (far right). (B) 2x105 5C.C7αβ splenocytes were transferred into CD90.1+ syngeneic hosts and recipients were immunized with PCC and IFA or MPL-based adjuvant. Representative probability contours of pMHCII tetramer staining versus CD90.2 for IFA (left) and MPL (middle) immunized recipients. Total number of Vα11+CD90.2+pMHCII+ cells in draining lymph nodes of recipients immunized with IFA or MPL-based adjuvant (far right), mean ± SEM; n = 3; p < 0.01 (∗∗) (two-tailed Student's t test). Immunity 2008 28, 698-709DOI: (10.1016/j.immuni.2008.03.014) Copyright © 2008 Elsevier Inc. Terms and Conditions

Figure 7 Selection Threshold Is Reset Independently of the Antigen Dose (A) PCC-specific Th cells (Vα11+Vβ3+CD44hiCD62Llo) at day 7 in lymph nodes from mice immunized with MPL-based adjuvant containing 400 μg (left), 40 μg (middle), or 4 μg (right) of PCC. (B) Total number of PCC-specific Th cells after immunization with 400, 40, 4, and 0 μg PCC; mean ± SEM; n ≥ 3; p < 0.05 (∗) two-tail Student's t test, compared to any other antigen dose. (C) Relative abundance of PCC-specific Th cells expressing Jβ1.2 or Jβ2.5 gene segments for indicated PCC dose; mean ± SEM; n ≥ 3. (D) Prevalence of five dominant TCRβ chains expressing clonotypes comparing 400 μg dose (data from Figure 3C) to 4 μg dose, mean ± SEM; n = 3. Immunity 2008 28, 698-709DOI: (10.1016/j.immuni.2008.03.014) Copyright © 2008 Elsevier Inc. Terms and Conditions