Despite a number of controversies, the functional importance of human leukocyte antigen G (HLA-G) in early human pregnancy is now sustained by a large amount of sound data. Membrane-bound and soluble HLA-G isoforms, either as β2-microglobulin-free or -associated as monomers or dimers, are expressed by different trophoblast subpopulations, the only fetal-derived cells that are directly in contac...

A rapid induction of adhesion to immobilized intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1 occurs when cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) are stimulated with either soluble anti-T cell receptor (TCR) monoclonal antibodies (mAb) or with immobilized alloantigen, and this binding is blocked by the addition of anti-lymphocyte function-associated (LFA)-1 mAbs. Requirements for activating LFA-1 adhesion to ICA...

Priming of naive CD8+ and CD4+ T cells by dendritic cells (DCs) requires effective antigen presentation on both MHC class I and II molecules. We have developed a novel technology to use recombinant overlapping peptides (ROP) that stimulate both CD8+ and CD4+ T cell immune responses. The single chain protein of a ROP is made up of overlapping peptides linked by the target sequence (LRMK) for cat...

To gain insights into the mechanisms by which soluble heat shock protein (hsp) fusions can elicit CD8(+) cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) against the fusion partner, mycobacterial (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) hsp70 was dissected to ascertain whether a particular hsp domain is necessary, and knockout mice were used to determine whether the fusion protein's immunogenicity is dependent on CD4(+) T l...

T-cell immune responses modulated by T-cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain-containing molecule 3 (Tim-3) during Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection in humans remain poorly understood. Here, we found that active TB patients exhibited increases in numbers of Tim-3-expressing CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells, which preferentially displayed polarized effector memory phenotypes. Consistent with eff...

The identification of tumor-associated antigens recognized by CD8+ cytotoxic T cells paved the way to new concepts in adjuvant anticancer therapy. However, the number of tumor-associated proteins found to be expressed in the majority of human cancers is still rather limited. Recently, the newly identified apoptosis inhibitor protein survivin has been recognized as a widely occurring tumor-assoc...

Trachoma, caused by the obligate intracellular organism Chlamydia trachomatis, is the world's leading cause of preventable blindness for which a vaccine is needed. We have previously shown that a plasmid-deficient live-attenuated trachoma vaccine delivered ocularly to macaques elicited either solid or partial protective immunity against a virulent ocular challenge. Solidly protected macaques sh...

Cancer dormancy is a clinical state in which residual tumor cells persist for long periods of time but do not cause detectable disease. In the mouse B cell lymphoma model (BCL1), dormancy can be induced and maintained by immunizing mice with a soluble form of the IgM expressed on the surface of the tumor cells. Immunization induces an anti-idiotype antibody response that maintains dormancy. Mic...

NKG2D is an activating receptor on T cells, which has been implicated in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases. T cells are critically involved in idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) and have been proposed as specific therapeutic targets. However, the mechanisms underlying T cell-mediated progressive muscle destruction in IIM remain to be elucidated. We here determined the involvement of...

Soluble mouse CD8aa and CD8ab dimers corresponding to the paired ectodomains (CD8f) or their respective component Ig-like domains (CD8) were expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells or the glycosylation variant Lec3.2.8.1 cells as secreted proteins using a leucine zipper strategy. The affinity of CD8aaf for H-2K b as measured by BIAcore revealed a ;65 mM Kd, similar to that of CD8abf. Consisten...