Manipulation of Cytokine Production from CD8⁺ T Cells by Means of Amino Acid-Substituted Analogs of a Peptide Antigen

Abstract

Manipulation ofCD8⁺T-cellresponses specific for an exogenous antigen by epitope variants would be advantageous to develop a novel means of antigen-specific immune regulation. We previously established a CD8⁺ T cell clone named 5F1 which is specific for peptide 142–149 (p142–149) of a_s1-casein, a major milk allergen, and these cells produce interleukin 10 (IL- 10) and interferon γ(IFN-γ) upon antigenic stimulation. Some of the analog peptides derived from p142–149 with single amino-acid substitutions triggered only IL- 10 production whereas others induced production of IFN-γ alone or both of these cytokines. These results demonstrate that the signaling pathway involved in induction of IL-10 production in CD8⁺ T cells differs from that for IFN-production. Our findings illustrate that cytokine production from CD8⁺ T cells can be manipulated by using single amino-acid substituted analogs of an antigenic peptide.