RESUMEN
Patients chronically infected with Trypanosoma cruzi develop chronic Chagas' heart disease (cChHD). Their Ab response is suspected to be involved in the cardiac pathogenesis. Reactivity of serum Abs from these patients has been extensively studied but little is known about the diversity of the in vivo IgG repertoire. We analyzed 125 variable H chain (VH) genes and compared it to repertoires from healthy individuals, and patients with autoimmune processes and other infections. VH were from plasma cells isolated from heart tissue of three cChHD patients and from a Fab combinatorial library derived from bone marrow of another cChHD patient. The role of the parasite in shaping the Ab repertoire was assessed analyzing VH genes before and after panning against T. cruzi Ag. Among recovered VH genes, a significantly increased representation of VH4 was observed. Plasma cells at the site of cardiac infiltration showed an increased VH1 usage. CDR3 lengths were similar to the ones found in the healthy repertoire and significantly shorter than in other infections. VH derived from anti-T. cruzi Fab and plasma cells showed a higher proportion of hypermutated genes, 46.9% and 43.75%, respectively, vs 30.9% of the cChHD patient repertoire, pointing to the role of parasite Ags in the shaping of the humoral response in Chagas' disease. No histological evidence of germinal center-like structures was observed in heart tissue. In accordance, VH analysis of heart plasmocytes revealed no evidence of clonal B cell expansion, suggesting that they migrated into heart tissue from secondary lymphoid organs.
Asunto(s)
Anticuerpos Antiprotozoarios/genética , Cardiomiopatía Chagásica/inmunología , Reordenamiento Génico de Linfocito B/genética , Cadenas Pesadas de Inmunoglobulina/biosíntesis , Cadenas Pesadas de Inmunoglobulina/genética , Región Variable de Inmunoglobulina/biosíntesis , Región Variable de Inmunoglobulina/genética , Adulto , Secuencia de Aminoácidos , Anticuerpos Antiprotozoarios/biosíntesis , Antígenos de Protozoos/inmunología , Linfocitos B/inmunología , Linfocitos B/parasitología , Linfocitos B/patología , Cardiomiopatía Chagásica/parasitología , Cardiomiopatía Chagásica/patología , Enfermedad Crónica , Regiones Determinantes de Complementariedad/biosíntesis , Regiones Determinantes de Complementariedad/genética , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Datos de Secuencia Molecular , Hipermutación Somática de Inmunoglobulina/genética , Trypanosoma cruzi/inmunologíaRESUMEN
Forty unique murine antibody-antigen complexes determined at 2.5 A or less resolution are analyzed to determine whether the residues in direct contact with the antigen are modified by somatic hypermutation. This was done by taking advantage of the recent characterization of the pool of Vkappa germline genes of the mouse. The average number of residues in contact with the antigen in the V(L) gene, which contains the CDRL-1, CDRL-2, and all but one residue of CDRL-3, was six. The average number of somatic mutations was similar (around five). However, as many as 53% of the antibodies did not show somatic replacements of residues in contact with the antigen. Another 28% had only one. Overall, the frequency of antibodies with increasing number of somatic replacements in residues in contact with the antigen decreased exponentially. A possible explanation of this finding is that mutations in the contacting residues have an adverse effect on the antigen-antibody interaction. This implies that most of the observed mutations are those remaining after negative (purifying) selection. Therefore, efficient strategies of site-directed mutagenesis to improve the affinity of antibodies should be focused on residues other than those directly interacting with the antigen.