Preparation and Identification of HLA-A＊1101 Tetramer Loading with Human Cytomegalovirus pp65 Antigen Peptide

MHC/peptide tetramer technology has been widely used to study antigen-specific T cells, especially for identifying virus-specific CD8^＋ T cells in humans. The tetramer molecule is composed of HLA heavy chain, β2-microglobulin （β2m）, an antigenic peptide, and fluorescent-labeled streptavidin. To further investigate the HLA-A＊1101-restricted CD8^＋ T cell responses against human cytomegalovirus （HCMV）, we established an approach to prepare HLA-A＊1101 tetramer complexed with a peptide from HCMV. The cDNA encoding HLA-A＊1101 heavy chain was cloned and the prokaryotic expression vector for the ectodomain of HLA-A＊1101 fused with a BirA substrate peptide （HLA-A＊1101-BSP） at its carboxyl terminus was constructed. The fusion protein was highly expressed as inclusion bodies under optimized conditions in Escherichla coli. Moreover, HLA-A＊1101-BSP protein was refolded in the presence of β2m and an HCMV peptide pp6516.24 （GPISGHVLK, GPI）. Soluble HLA-A＊1101-GPI monomer was biotinylated and purified to a purity of 95%, which was subsequently combined with streptavidin to form tetramers at a yield of 〉 80%. The HLA-A＊1101-GPI tetramers could bind to virus-specific CD8^＋ T cells, suggesting soluble HLA-A＊1101-GPI tetramers were biologically functional. This study provides the basis for further evaluation of HLA-A＊1101-restricted CD8^＋ T cell responses against HCMV infection.