Role of the TCR gd T Cells in the Mucosal Response to Intestinal Infection

Despite the fact that clinically relevant infectious agents such as human immunodeficiency virus enter through the intestinal mucosa, the intestinal T cell response to infection remains understudied. Listeria monocytogenes (LM) has been used as a model organism for studying T cell responses and the normal route of infection for LM and a potential route for use of LM as a vaccine are through ingestion. Nevertheless, the vast majority of LM immunological studies utilize inoculation routes other than oral. Moreover in the bacterial strains used the internalin. A protein binds human E-cadherin with high affinity but poorly binds mouse E-cadherin. This receptor-ligand pairing is required for entry of LM into intestinal epithelial cells. The oral infection studies proposed here utilize a recombinant LM that expresses an internalin A protein with high affinity for mouse E-cadherin. Thus, the physiologic route and entry point of LM is recapitulated in our studies. Our preliminary studies revealed a remarkable mucosal TCR gd T cell response to oral LM infection, whose kinetics mimic an adaptive T cell response. Most importantly, this phenotypically and functionally distinct subset of mucosal TCR gd T cells are retained long-term and undergo a recall response upon challenge. The hypothesis to be tested in this proposal is that this specialized subset of putative memory TCR gd T cells is important for protection against LM infection and also regulates the long-term protective CD8 TCR ab response. This hypothesis will be tested in the following specific aims: Aim 1. To test whether a subset of TCR gd represent bona fide mucosal memory cells. A detailed kinetic, phenotypic and functional analysis of the primary and secondary TCR gd cell response to oral LM infection will be undertaken. Aim 2. To determine the requirements for mucosal TCRgd activation in response to LM infection. Here we will test the role of dendritic cells, cosfimulation and cytokines in mounting primary and secondary TCR gd cell responses. Aim 3. To visualize the mucosal TCR gd cell response to oral LM infection. The oral infection system provides an exceptional opportunity to examine the anatomy of the mucosal TCR gd cell response.

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Sheridan BS, Romagnoli PA, Pham QM, Fu HH, Alonzo F 3rd, Schubert WD, Freitag NE, Lefrançois L