Alloreactive CD4+ T lymphocytes can exert cytotoxicity to chronic myeloid leukaemia cells processing and presenting exogenous antigen.

Existing evidence supports that CD4+ T lymphocytes play a role in the graft-versus-leukaemia (GVL) reaction after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) for chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), not only as initiators of the immune response but also as effectors of GVL. In BMT between HLA-identical pairs this CD4-mediated GVL would require CML cells to process and present antigens through MHC class II molecules. To investigate whether CML cells are capable of processing and presenting antigens, and suitable targets for CD4+ T-cell-mediated cytotoxicity, we generated HLA-DR1-restricted CD4+ cytotoxic T-cell clones that specifically recognized tuberculous purified protein derivative (PPD). We have shown that CML cells and B lymphoblastoid cell line (B-LCL) cells but not PHA-blasts from patients with CML processed exogenous antigen, PPD, and induced proliferative and cytotoxic CD4+ T-cell responses. Antigen presentation was blocked by antibodies to HLA-DR but not to MHC class I and by treatment with chloroquine and brefeldin. This indicates that CML cells use a classic MHC class II antigen processing pathway to present PPD antigens to CD4+ T cells. Cytotoxicity to CML was shown by antibody blocking studies to be mediated mainly through fas antigen. These findings indicate that donor CD4+ T cells alone are sufficient to mediate GVL effects following allogeneic BMT for CML.