J Immunol 2002 Jun 1;168(11):5885-92
Wildbaum G, Netzer N, Karin N.
Department of Immunology and Rappaport Family Institute for Research
in the Medical Sciences, Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion,
Haifa, Israel.
IFN-gamma-inducible protein 10 (IP-10) is a CXC chemokine that stimulates the directional migration of activated T cells, particularly Th1 cells.
We demonstrate in this work that during activation this chemokine drives naive CD4(+) T cells into Th1 polarization.
Administration of plasmid DNA encoding self IP-10 was found capable of breaking down immunological tolerance to IP-10, resulting in the generation of self-specific immunity to the gene product of the vaccine.
Despite the CpG motif that drives T cells into Th1, the vaccine redirected the polarization of myelin basic protein-specific T cells into Th2 and conferred the vaccinated recipients a high state of resistance against experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, a T cell-mediated autoimmune disease of the CNS.
The vaccine also suppressed full-blown ongoing disease in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis.
Self-specific Ab to IP-10 developed in protected animals could inhibit leukocyte migration, alter the in vitro Th1/Th2 balance of autoimmune T cells, and adoptively transfer disease suppression.
This demonstrates not only the pivotal role of a chemokine in T cell polarization and function but also its potential implications for plasmid DNA gene therapy.