INSERM U643, 30 Bd J. Monnet, 44093 Nantes Cedex, France.
Clin Immunol. 2010 Apr;135(1):33-42. doi: 10.1016/j.clim.2009.12.006. Epub 2010 Feb 8.
Glatiramer acetate (GA) is a random copolymer used as an immunomodulatory treatment in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RR-MS). Its mechanisms of action are poorly understood, and several hypotheses have been put forward, the majority of which rely on in vitro studies. It has been hypothesised that further to processing by APC, GA could provide a large number of different epitopes with a possible sequence similarity to auto-antigens, which are able to stimulate a large proportion of T cells. Given that in a previous study we showed that the circulating T cells of MS patients present more alterations of the Vbeta T cell receptor (TCR) usage than normal individuals, we explored the possible effect of GA on the ex vivo T cell repertoire of MS patients. Here we used quantitative PCR and electrophoresis to longitudinally analyse (and without any ex vivo stimulation), the CDR3 length distribution (LD) and the amount of Vbeta TCR, as well as various cytokines, in the blood T cells of 10 RR-MS patients before and after 3 months and 2 years of GA treatment. In addition, we also determined the status of responder and non-responder patients after 24 months of GA treatment based on clinical and radiological criteria. We found no significant modification of cytokine production, Vbeta TCR mRNA accumulation or CDR3-LD in the patients after short-term and long-term treatment. In addition, we did not observe any difference in CDR3-LD in the GA responder patients (n=6) compared to non-responder patients (n=4). Focusing our study on responder patients, we performed TCR repertoire analysis in the CD4+ and CD8+ compartment. Alterations of CDR3-LD were predominantly found in the CD8+ compartment, without any significant influence of GA treatment. Finally, the T cell repertoire variations in MS patients treated with GA and healthy controls were equivalent. Collectively, our data suggest that GA therapy does not induce significant variations in cytokine production or TCR usage in MS patients.
醋酸格拉替雷(GA)是一种随机共聚物,作为免疫调节治疗在复发缓解型多发性硬化症(RR-MS)中使用。其作用机制尚未完全阐明,已经提出了几种假说,其中大多数依赖于体外研究。据推测,GA 在经过 APC 处理后,能够提供大量与自身抗原具有潜在序列相似性的不同表位,从而刺激大量 T 细胞。鉴于我们之前的研究表明 MS 患者的循环 T 细胞呈现出比正常个体更多的 Vbeta T 细胞受体(TCR)使用改变,我们探索了 GA 对 MS 患者体外 T 细胞库的可能影响。在此,我们使用定量 PCR 和电泳技术,在未经任何体外刺激的情况下,对 10 名 RR-MS 患者的血液 T 细胞的 CDR3 长度分布(LD)和 Vbeta TCR 数量以及各种细胞因子进行了纵向分析,在 GA 治疗 3 个月和 2 年后。此外,我们还根据临床和影像学标准,确定了 GA 治疗 24 个月后应答者和非应答者患者的状态。我们发现,在短期和长期治疗后,患者的细胞因子产生、Vbeta TCR mRNA 积累或 CDR3-LD 没有显著改变。此外,我们在 GA 应答者患者(n=6)与非应答者患者(n=4)之间也没有观察到 CDR3-LD 的差异。在聚焦于应答者患者的研究中,我们对 CD4+和 CD8+亚群中的 TCR 库进行了分析。CDR3-LD 的改变主要发生在 CD8+亚群中,GA 治疗没有显著影响。最后,GA 治疗的 MS 患者和健康对照者的 T 细胞库变化相当。总的来说,我们的数据表明,GA 治疗不会在 MS 患者中诱导细胞因子产生或 TCR 使用的显著变化。