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Published online before print October 24, 2006

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© by The Society for Leukocyte Biology
Journal of Leukocyte Biology, doi:10.1189/jlb.0706479

Received for publication July 28, 2006.
Revised September 22, 2006.
Accepted for publication September 25, 2006.

Article

Inhibition of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) rescues influenza epitope-specific human cytolytic T lymphocytes (CTL) from activation-induced cell death (AICD)

Department of Medicine, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut, USA

^@ To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: mukherji{at}nso2.uchc.edu.

	Abstract

CTL play an important role in defense against viral infections. Following clonal expansion and effector functions, a vast majority of the antigen-specific CTL undergoes programmed cell death to maintain homeostasis. We have shown earlier that melanoma epitope-specific CTL are quite sensitive to activation-induced cell death (AICD) even on the secondary encounter of the antigen. Excessive sensitivity of viral antigen-specific CTL to AICD, however, would be counterproductive. It might be argued that although CTL for a "self" epitope might be more prone to AICD for maintaining self-tolerance, viral antigen-specific CTL are likely to be less sensitive to AICD. We show here that influenza matrix protein-derived MP_58-66 epitope-specific CTL, activated in vitro and bearing a memory phenotype, are just as sensitive to AICD. The AICD in these CTL is not blocked by the pan-caspase inhibitor benzyloxycarbonyl-Val-Ala-Asp (OMe)-fluoromethylketone or by soluble Ig-Fc chimeras of the death receptors [Fas, TNF receptor (TNF-R), TRAIL-RI, TRAIL-RII]. However, the MP_58-66-specific CTL can be rescued from AICD by the JNK inhibitor SP600125. These results have implications for immunotherapeutic intervention in rescuing viral epitope-specific CTL from AICD.

Key Words: human • dendritic cell