Study of the mechanism of TCR antagonism using dual-TCR-expressing T cells

The mechanism of action of TCR antagonists is incompletely understood. T cells expressing two distinct TCRs have been used to test competition for TCR occupancy as a potential mechanism. Previous studies with CD4 T cells showed that an antagonist for one TCR inhibited the response to the other TCR (cross-antagonism), whereas studies with CD8 cells failed to demonstrate cross-antagonism. To determine whether CD4 and CD8 cells were intrinsically different or whether the differences were the result of the use of different effector assays, we studied both CD4 and CD8 dual-TCR-expressing T cells. In the CD4 system, consistent with previous reports, cross-antagonism of proliferation was observed. In the CD8 system, cross-antagonism was observed using proliferation as readout but not when target cell cytolysis was used. These results suggest that different mechanisms may be involved in the inhibition of proliferation and inhibition of cytotoxic effector function, the latter only involving competition for TCR occupancy. Inhibition of proliferation appears to be more complex and other mechanisms such as sequestration of signaling molecules or negative signaling may be involved. The fact that 10- to 20-fold more antagonist was needed to achieve cross-antagonism compared with inhibition of the cognate TCR is consistent with the hypothesis that competition for TCR occupancy is also a major, albeit not sole, mechanism of antagonism of the proliferative responses of CD4 and CD8 cells.