Definition of an extended MHC class II-peptide binding motif for the autoimmune disease-associated Lewis rat RT1.BL molecule

The Lewis rat, an inbred rat strain susceptible to several well-characterized experimental autoimmune diseases, provides a good model to study peptide-mediated immunotherapy. Peptide immunotherapy focussing on the modulation of T cell responses by interfering with TCR-peptide-MHC complex formation requires the elucidation of the molecular basis of TCR-peptide-MHC interactions for an efficient design of modulatory peptides. In the Lewis rat most autoimmune-associated CD4+ T cell responses are MHC class II RT1.BL restricted. In this study, the characteristics of RT1.BL-peptide interactions were explored. A series of substitution analogs of two Lewis rat T cell epitopes was examined in a direct peptide-MHC binding assay on isolated RT1.BL molecules. Furthermore, other autoimmune-related as well as non-disease-related T cell epitopes were tested in the binding assay. This has led to the definition of an extended RT1.BL-peptide binding motif. The RT1.BL-peptide binding motif established in this study is the first described rat MHC-peptide binding motif based on direct MHC-peptide binding experiments. To predict good or intermediate RT1.BL binding peptides, T cell epitope search profiles were deduced from this motif. The motif and search profiles will greatly facilitate the prediction of modulatory peptides based on autoimmune-associated T cell epitopes and the identification of target structures in experimental autoimmune diseases in Lewis rats.