B7-blocking agents, alone or in combination with cyclosporin A, induce antigen-specific anergy of human memory T cells.

T cell anergy refers to a functional state in which the cells are alive but unable to produce IL-2 after appropriate triggering. Lack of CD28 costimulation through CD80 and CD86 molecules on APC might play a causative role in anergy induction, as previously shown with T cell clones. We now developed a model of anergy induction in cultures of freshly isolated memory T cells. Addition of either CTLA-4Ig or blocking anti-CD80 and anti-CD86 mAbs, in combination with cyclosporin A, to cultures of PBMC with soluble Ag consistently resulted in Ag-specific unresponsiveness, as evidenced upon antigenic rechallenge. In most experiments, the presence of cyclosporin A was not required, and blocking the B7-CD28 interaction during antigenic stimulation was sufficient to induce unresponsiveness. Unresponsiveness was apparent at the level of T cell proliferation as well as at the level of IL-2 and IFN-gamma production, and T cell responses to unrelated Ags were intact. Induction of unresponsiveness correlated with lack of T cell proliferation in the induction culture and could largely be prevented by supplementing the induction cultures with rIL-2, indicating that lack of IL-2 was responsible for this altered functional state. Unresponsive T cells did not suppress the proliferation of autologous T cells in response to original or third-party Ags. On the other hand, culture with IL-2 and Ag could reverse established T cell unresponsiveness, pointing to anergy rather than deletion as the underlying mechanism. Anergy induction in freshly isolated memory T cells opens perspectives for treatment of autoimmune and allergic diseases.

Differential requirements for co-stimulatory signals from B7 family members by resting versus recently activated memory T cells towards soluble recall antigens.

The interaction between CD28 on T cells with CD80 (B7-1) and CD86 (B7-2) on APCs is considered to be of critical importance for primary T cell activation both in vivo and in vitro. The relative importance of this co-stimulatory signal in memory T cell activation is, however, less clear, and was therefore studied by in vitro experiments on T cell responses to soluble recall antigens using peripheral blood mononuclear cells or T cell clones. Our data demonstrate that B7-2 represents the major co-stimulatory signal for the activation of resting peripheral blood memory T cells with recall antigens, as evidenced by the effects of anti-B7-1 and anti-B7-2 on T cell proliferation as well as on IL-2 and INF-gamma production. Since CTLA-4-lg and anti-CD28 Fab fragments had similar inhibitory effects to the combination of anti-B7-1 plus anti B7-2, the involvement of a third co-stimulatory CD28/CTLA-4 ligand is unlikely. Despite the strong effects of B7-blocking agents, a variable fraction of the memory T cells was resistant to inhibition. Moreover, T cell clones or in vitro preactivated T cells could efficiently be restimulated by soluble atigens on autologous APCs in the absence of B7-1 or B7-2 co-stimulation. These data show that most memory T cells that are freshly isolated from the blood are still dependent on CD28 triggering for their activation. However, recently activated T cells can apparently bypass the requirement for B7 and use other co-stimulatory signals for reactivation, a finding with important implications for the development of immunosuppressive strategies.