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Palesch D, Wagner J, Meid A, Molenda N, Sienczyk M, Burkhardt J, Münch J, Prokop L, Stevanovic S, Westhoff MA, Halatsch ME, Wirtz CR, Zimecki M, Burster T. Cathepsin G-mediated proteolytic degradation of MHC class I molecules to facilitate immune detection of human glioblastoma cells. Cancer Immunol Immunother 2016; 65:283-91. [PMID: 26837514 PMCID: PMC11028727 DOI: 10.1007/s00262-016-1798-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2015] [Accepted: 01/16/2016] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
To mount an adaptive immune response, MHC I molecules present antigenic peptides to CTLs. Transcriptional reduction of MHC I molecules is a strategy of immune evasion, which impairs the detection of infected or tumorous cells by CTLs. Natural killer (NK) cells, on the other hand, eliminate target cells specifically in the absence of MHC I. Consequently, infected or tumorous cells partly retain their MHC I at the cell surface to avoid NK recognition. However, it remains unclear which protease degrades MHC I molecules and how these cells maintain a limited set of MHC I at the cell surface. Here, we demonstrate that cathepsin G (CatG), a serine protease, found in the endocytic compartment of APCs and, to a lesser extent, CatD and CatS proteolytically degrade MHC I molecules. Inhibition of CatG boosted MHC I expression at the cell surface of primary human immune cells. In contrast, human glioblastoma cells do not harbor active CatG and might have lost the ability to proteolytically degrade MHC I during tumorigenesis to avoid NK-mediated killing. Overexpression of CatG in glioblastoma cells resulted in a rapid and efficient MHC I degradation. In conclusion, CatG is an essential protease for regulating MHC I molecules and thus modulation of CatG activity might present a new avenue for therapeutic intervention.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Palesch
- Institute of Molecular Virology, Ulm University Medical Center, Ulm, Germany
| | - Johanna Wagner
- Department of Neurosurgery, Ulm University Medical Center, Albert-Einstein-Allee 23, 89081, Ulm, Germany
| | - Annika Meid
- Department of Neurosurgery, Ulm University Medical Center, Albert-Einstein-Allee 23, 89081, Ulm, Germany
| | - Nicole Molenda
- Department of Neurosurgery, Ulm University Medical Center, Albert-Einstein-Allee 23, 89081, Ulm, Germany
| | - Marcin Sienczyk
- Faculty of Chemistry, Wroclaw University of Technology, Wroclaw, Poland
| | - Jutta Burkhardt
- Department of Neurosurgery, Ulm University Medical Center, Albert-Einstein-Allee 23, 89081, Ulm, Germany
| | - Jan Münch
- Institute of Molecular Virology, Ulm University Medical Center, Ulm, Germany
| | - Lea Prokop
- Department of Immunology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | | | - Mike-Andrew Westhoff
- Department Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Ulm University Medical Center, Albert-Einstein-Allee 23, 89081, Ulm, Germany
| | - Marc-Eric Halatsch
- Department of Neurosurgery, Ulm University Medical Center, Albert-Einstein-Allee 23, 89081, Ulm, Germany
| | - Christian Rainer Wirtz
- Department of Neurosurgery, Ulm University Medical Center, Albert-Einstein-Allee 23, 89081, Ulm, Germany
| | - Michal Zimecki
- Ludwik Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, Polish Academy of Sciences, Wroclaw, Poland
| | - Timo Burster
- Department of Neurosurgery, Ulm University Medical Center, Albert-Einstein-Allee 23, 89081, Ulm, Germany.
- Ludwik Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, Polish Academy of Sciences, Wroclaw, Poland.
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