ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. T Cell Biology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1572342
MUTATION OF CONSERVED MHC CLASS I CYTOPLASMIC TYROSINE AFFECTS CD8+ T CELL PRIMING, EFFECTOR FUNCTION, AND MEMORY RESPONSE
Provisionally accepted- 1University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, United States
- 2Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas, United States
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The cytoplasmic domain of MHC class I (MHC-I) molecules contains a single, highly conserved tyrosine residue (Y320). In previous work, we found that mice expressing a Y320F-mutated form of H-2Kb had reduced capacity to generate Kb-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses following viral infection, due at least in part to defects in endolysosomal trafficking of H-2Kb and antigen cross-presentation by dendritic cells (DCs). In this study, we investigated whether there are additional, post-presentation dependencies on Y320 for T cell priming. We engineered both human-and mouse-derived antigen-presenting cells (APCs) to express either wild-type MHC-I or variants of MHC-I containing Y320F or Y320E mutations. We found that Y320E-mutated HLA-A*0201 elicited enhanced in vitro priming and expansion of human antigen-specific CD8+ T cells, which showed a unique transcriptional profile compared to T cells primed with APCs expressing either WT or Y320F-mutated A*0201. Furthermore, the Y320E variant of H-2Kb expressed in the context of a murine DC vaccine model induced altered T cell differentiation kinetics while improving both anti-tumor immunity and augmenting the magnitude of memory CD8+ T cell responses in vivo. These results suggest that Y320 phosphorylation of MHC-I may play a role in determining the fate and function of CD8+ T cells and suggest a novel strategy for improving DC-based cancer immunotherapies.
Keywords: MHC class I, human leukocyte antigen (HLA), Cytotoxic T Cells, Dendritic Cells, Tyrosine phosphorylation, cytoplasmic tail
Received: 07 Feb 2025; Accepted: 08 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sun, Tang, Ortiz, Nassif Rausseo, Pazdrak, Elzohary, KATAILIHA, Talukder, Yee, Davis and Lizee. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Richard Eric Davis, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, United States
Gregory Lizee, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, United States
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