The presence of HLA-E-Restricted, CMV-Specific CD8 T Cells in the blood of lung transplant recipients correlates with chronic allograft rejection

LC Sullivan; GP Westall; JML Widjaja; NA Mifsud; THO Nguyen; AC Meehan; TC Kotsimbos; AG Brooks; P Chen

Journal article

The presence of HLA-E-Restricted, CMV-Specific CD8 T Cells in the blood of lung transplant recipients correlates with chronic allograft rejection

LC Sullivan, GP Westall, JML Widjaja, NA Mifsud, THO Nguyen, AC Meehan, TC Kotsimbos, AG Brooks, P Chen

Plos One | Published : 2015

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0135972

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Abstract

The human cytomegalovirus (CMV) immune evasion protein, UL40, shares an identical peptide sequence with that found in the leader sequence of many human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-C alleles and when complexed with HLA-E, can modulate NK cell functions via interactions with the CD94-NKG2 receptors. However the UL40-derived sequence can also be immunogenic, eliciting robust CD8+ T cell responses. In the setting of solid organ transplantation these T cells may not only be involved in antiviral immunity but also can potentially contribute to allograft rejection when the UL40 epitope is also present in allograft-encoded HLA. Here we assessed 15 bilateral lung transplant recipients for the presence of..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Lucy Sullivan Author

Oanh Nguyen Author

Andrew Brooks Author

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Grants

Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (nhmrc.gov.au) to AGB, Grant# APP1016629, the National Health and Medical Research Council (nhmrc.gov.au) to AGB, Grant# APP0509179, and the National Health and Medical Research Council (nhmrc.gov.au) to LCS, Grant# GNT0566571. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.