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Infection and Immunity, May 2002, p. 2676-2680, Vol. 70, No. 5
0019-9567/02/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/IAI.70.5.2676-2680.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Induction of Protective Immunity to Listeria monocytogenes by Immunization with Plasmid DNA Expressing a Helper T-Cell Epitope That Replaces the Class II-Associated Invariant Chain Peptide of the Invariant Chain
Toshi Nagata,* Taiki Aoshi, Mina Suzuki, Masato Uchijima, Yeung-Hyen Kim, Zhibo Yang, and Yukio Koide
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, 1-20-1 Handa-yama, Hamamatsu 431-3192, Japan
Received 23 July 2001/
Returned for modification 28 September 2001/
Accepted 24 January 2002

ABSTRACT
Listeria epitope-specific helper T (Th) cells were able to be
primed and induced in vivo by immunization with a plasmid carrying
an invariant chain (Ii) gene whose class II-associated invariant
chain peptide (CLIP) region was replaced by a
Listeria Th epitope.
Immunization of C3H/He mice with an Ii-LLO 215-226 plasmid induced
specific interferon-

- and interleukin 2-producing Th cells and
conferred significant protective immunity against listerial
infection.

TEXT
Listeria monocytogenes is a gram-positive intracellular bacterium.
A murine model of
L. monocytogenes infection has been well studied
and is considered a good model for exploring immunity against
intracellular bacteria (reviewed in references
2 and
12). Cellular
immunity has been considered to play a pivotal role in protection
against intracellular bacteria (
15). A variety of effector cells
have been reported or suggested to resolve infection. These
include neutrophils, macrophages, NK cells, and


T cells, as
well as

ß T cells (
9,
15,
19,
24). Among these,

ß
CD8
+ and CD4
+ T cells have been shown to play critical roles
in protective immunity through experiments with the depletion
and adoptive transfer of specific T-cell subsets (
1,
3,
4,
10,
27) and analyses of mutant mice with a genetic defect in ß2-microglobulin
or the H2-Aß chain gene (
13,
25). CD8
+ cytotoxic T
lymphocytes (CTL) have been reported to play a superior role
in protective immunity (
14,
18,
25). However, several papers
have demonstrated a significant role for the CD4
+-T-cell subset
in protective immunity (
11,
16,
23). Helper T (Th) cells play
an important role in many aspects of immunity, especially for
modulating immune responses by producing special sets of cytokines.
For protection against intracellular bacteria, the activation
of macrophages is indispensable, and antigen (Ag)-specific type
1 Th (Th1) cells have been reported to play a pivotal role in
the activation (reviewed in reference
12). To investigate the
roles of Th cells in protective immunity, we attempted to induce
Th cells by immunization with an expression plasmid for a single
Th epitope of
L. monocytogenes, amino acid residues 215 to 226
of listeriolysin O (LLO 215-226; SQLIAKFGTAFK), an H2-E
k-restricted
Th epitope (
26,
37). The attempt, however, was unsuccessful
(see Fig.
2A, p215), although immunization with plasmids encoding
a single CTL epitope was able to induce specific CTL (
20,
28,
34). In support of this result, we also showed in a previous
work that immunization with an expression plasmid for a single
Th epitope of ovalbumin (OVA 323-336) failed to induce specific
lymphocyte proliferation (
21).
The invariant chain (Ii) molecule plays a central role in major
histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II-mediated Ag presentation.
It associates with MHC class II molecules in the endoplasmic
reticulum so as to block premature loading of peptides on the
molecules there. The Ii molecule works as a molecular chaperone
for MHC class II transport to the endosomal compartment, where
antigenic peptides are replaced with the class II-associated
Ii peptide (CLIP) region of the molecule (reviewed in reference
8). Several groups have reported that MHC class II-positive
cultured cells transfected with Ii cDNA whose CLIP region was
replaced with a Th epitope of interest efficiently stimulate
specific Th lines in vitro (
5,
17,
29). In the present study,
we investigated the effect of a single epitope-specific Th on
protective immunity against
L. monocytogenes, using immunization
by gene gun bombardment with Ii plasmid DNA expressing a Th
epitope that replaces the CLIP region.
We constructed the plasmid for genetic immunization based on murine Ii p41 isoform cDNA. The EcoRI fragment containing Ii p41 cDNA was inserted into the EcoRI site in the pCI eukaryotic expression plasmid (Promega, Madison, Wis.). The CLIP region in the Ii cDNA was removed and replaced by a synthetic double-stranded oligonucleotide coding for LLO 215-226, resulting in pCI-mIi p41-LLO215m (Fig. 1). The oligonucleotide was designed so as to be adapted to the codon usage most frequent in mouse and human (22).
In order to examine whether pCI-mIi p41-LLO215m induces specific
T cells in vivo, we immunized C3H/He mice (
H2k; Japan SLC, Hamamatsu,
Japan) with the plasmid by gene gun bombardment. We chose this
immunization method because, based on our previous experience,
it is a very reliable and reproducible method (
36). All animal
experiments were performed according to the animal care guidelines
of our university. The plasmid DNA immunization was performed
with the Helios gene gun system (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Hercules,
Calif.). The preparation of a DNA-coated gold particle cartridge
was performed following the manufacturer's instruction manual.
Finally, 0.5 mg of 1.0-µm-diameter gold particles were
coated with 1 µg of plasmid DNA, and the injection was
carried out with 0.5 mg of gold/shot. Then, the mice were injected
in the abdomen with 1 µg of plasmids at a helium discharge
pressure of 400 lb/in
2 four times at weekly intervals.
Three weeks after the last immunization, a lymphocyte proliferation assay was performed with splenocytes from the immunized mice. After treatment with Tris-buffered 0.83% ammonium chloride to lyse erythrocytes, splenocytes (5 x 105/well) from pCI-mIi p41-LLO215m-immunized mice were incubated for 48 h at 37°C in 96-well round-bottom tissue culture plates in RPMI-1640 medium supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum (FCS) in the presence or absence of 1 µM LLO 215-226 peptide. Then, DNA synthesis was assessed by adding 0.5 µCi of [methyl-3H]thymidine (6.7 Ci/mmol; ICN Biochemicals, Irvine, Calif.)/well for the last 14 h of culture. The cultures were harvested onto glass fiber filters, and the radioactivity was counted by liquid scintillation. As shown in Fig. 2A, immunization with the plasmid allowed splenocytes to proliferate after incubation in the presence, but not in the absence, of LLO 215-226 peptide at a level comparable to that of viable Listeria immunization. We could not detect any significant LLO 215-226-specific lymphocyte proliferation by immunization with p215 (LLO 215-226 expression plasmid) or pCI-mIi p41 (wild-type Ii p41 expression plasmid). We could not detect nonspecific proliferative responses with pCI-mIi p41-LLO215m when accompanied by incubation with an irrelevant peptide (LLO 189-200; Fig. 2A).
Furthermore, the CD4-CD8 specificity of proliferative lymphocytes was tested by depletion studies with the anti-murine CD4 monoclonal antibody (MAb) GK1.5 or the anti-murine CD8
MAb 53-6.7 (PharMingen, San Diego, Calif.). These MAbs were added to the immune splenocytes, at 1 µg/ml, and the splenocytes were incubated for 1 h at 4°C. They were then centrifuged, and the supernatants were discarded. The cells were resuspended in cytotoxicity medium (RPMI-1640 medium with 25 mM HEPES buffer and 0.3% FCS) containing rabbit complement (Cedarlane, Hornby, Ontario, Canada) and incubated for 1 h at 37°C. The dead cells were removed by Lympholite-M reagent (Cedarlane). The recovered cells were used for the lymphocyte proliferation assay described above. The LLO 215-226-specific proliferative responses of splenocytes from the immunized mice was reduced significantly by CD4+-T-cell subset depletion but not by CD8+-T-cell subset depletion, indicating that LLO 215-226-specific T cells generated by pCI-mIi p41-LLO215m plasmid DNA immunization belong to the CD4+-T-cell subset (Fig. 2B).
Next, we examined specific gamma interferon (IFN-
), interleukin-2 (IL-2), and IL-4 production by splenocytes from mice immunized with the pCI-mIi p41-LLO215m plasmid. Splenocytes from the immunized mice were plated in 24-well plates at 2 x 106/well in RPMI 1640 medium supplemented with 10% FCS in the presence or absence of 1 µM LLO 215-226 peptide for 4 days in the case of IFN-
and IL-4 and for 1 day in the case of IL-2. The concentrations of cytokines in the culture supernatants were determined by sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, as described elsewhere (35). All of the MAbs used were purchased from PharMingen. As shown in Table 1, we observed the production of significant amounts of IFN-
and IL-2 by splenocytes from mice immunized with pCI-mIi p41-LLO215m, but not with pCI-mIi p41, at a level comparable with that from mice immunized with viable Listeria after in vitro culture in the presence of LLO 215-226 peptide. In addition, splenocytes of pCI-mIi p41-LLO215m-immunized mice after incubation with an irrelevant MHC class II binding peptide did not produce significant amounts of IFN-
and IL-2. We could not detect significant levels of IL-4 by using the same culture supernatants of splenocytes from all mice examined (Table 1).
To ascertain if Th cell effectors evoked by plasmid immunization
are associated with an increased resistance to infection by
the virulent
L. monocytogenes EGD strain, in vivo protection
experiments were carried out. The bacterium was kept virulent
by in vivo passage. For inoculation, a seed of
L. monocytogenes was cultured overnight in trypticase soy broth (BBL, Sparks,
Md.) at 37°C in a bacterial shaker and suitably diluted
with phosphate-buffered saline. The exact infection dose was
assessed retrospectively by plating. Mice were immunized with
pCI-mIi p41-LLO215m four times at weekly intervals or were immunized
by a single intraperitoneal injection with a sublethal dose
of
L. monocytogenes (10
4 CFU) as a positive control. The immunized
mice were challenged intraperitoneally with 2
x 10
5 CFU of
Listeria 3 weeks after the last immunization. Bacterial numbers in the
spleens and livers were determined 72 h after the challenge
infection by plating 10-fold dilutions of tissue homogenates
on trypticase soy agar. As shown in Fig.
3, immunization with
pCI-mIi p41-LLO215m dramatically decreased the bacterial numbers
in the spleens and livers of the immunized mice. Verma et al.
(
32) also demonstrated by using a
Salmonella carrier system
that induction of a CD4
+-T-cell population responsive to LLO
215-226 elicits partial protective immunity. In their system,
reduction in the number of
Listeria cells was more significant
in the livers of LLO 215-226-immunized mice than in the spleens.
Our data also show that LLO 215-226-immunized mice were somewhat
better protected against
Listeria challenge in the liver than
in the spleen compared with
Listeria-immunized mice (Fig.
3).
On the other hand, Geginat et al. (
6) reported enhanced protection
by p60-specific CD4
+-T-cell clones in the spleen compared with
the liver in their adoptive-transfer system of the CD4
+-T-cell
clones. This discrepancy might be attributable to differences
in the experimental design, including intraperitoneal listerial
challenge (this work and Verma et al. [
32]) versus intravenous
listerial challenge (Geginat et al. [
6]). In addition, other
reports also demonstrated a role for CD4
+ T cells in protective
immunity against listerial challenge (
11,
16,
23). The mechanisms
of the protective immunity elicited by CD4
+ T cells have been
speculated upon.
Listeria-specific CD4
+ T cells may act by direct
lysis of the infected target cells (
11). Alternatively, the
cells may show the bystander effect by secretion of cytokines,
especially IFN-

. IFN-

will enhance the killing activity of macrophages
or augment induction of CD8
+ CTL (
33).
We report here that DNA immunization with an Ii expression plasmid
whose encoded CLIP region has been replaced by a
Listeria-derived
Th epitope successfully induces T cells specific to the epitope
in vivo. Attempts to induce specific Th cells by using Ii plasmids
in the cell line system (
5,
17,
29; reviewed in reference
30)
or, recently, in vivo (
21,
31) have been reported. Here, we
showed that a similar system can be applied successfully for
DNA vaccination against infectious diseases. This is the first
report showing that a single immunization with Ii plasmid DNA
whose encoded CLIP region has been replaced by a Th epitope
induces effective protective immunity against a microorganism.
One of the advantages of gene immunization with T-cell epitope
minigene plasmids is that we can compare the immunogenicities
of all of the T-cell epitopes at the same expression level in
vivo. We have analyzed the hierarchy of the magnitudes of immunogenicity
of three
Listeria-derived CTL epitopes by using a gene immunization
system with minigenes for three listerial CTL epitopes (
34).
Using the system discussed here, it is interesting to compare
the immunodominance of several Th epitopes, including those
recently identified from LLO and p60, in the induction of protective
immunity (
7). Furthermore, we plan to examine the effect of
combinatorial induction of both CTL and Th cell subsets in order
to induce more effective protective immunity against the bacterium
by using the system discussed here.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Ronald N. Germain (National Institutes of Health, Bethesda,
Md.) for murine p41 cDNA, Masao Mitsuyama (Kyoto University,
Kyoto, Japan) for
L. monocytogenes strain EGD, and Naohiro Seo
(Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Hamamatsu, Japan)
for providing anti-CD4 and CD8 MAbs.
This work was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan and Shizuoka Research and Education Foundation (Shizuoka, Japan) and from the Regional Science Promotion Program of the Japan Science and Technology Corporation.

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, 1-20-1 Handa-yama, Hamamatsu 431-3192, Japan. Phone and fax: 81-53-435-2335. E-mail:
tnagata{at}hama-med.ac.jp.

Editor: S. H. E. Kaufmann

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Infection and Immunity, May 2002, p. 2676-2680, Vol. 70, No. 5
0019-9567/02/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/IAI.70.5.2676-2680.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
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