An insertion mutant in DQA1*0501 restores susceptibility to HLA-DM: implications for disease associations

HLA-DM (DM) catalyzes CLIP release, stabilizes MHC class II molecules, and edits the peptide repertoire presented by class II. Impaired DM function may have profound effects on Ag presentation events in the thymus and periphery that are critical for maintenance of self-tolerance. The associations of the HLA-DQ2 (DQ2) allele with celiac disease and type 1 diabetes mellitus have been appreciated for a long time. The explanation for these associations, however, remains unknown. We previously found that DQ2 is a poor substrate for DM. In this study, to further characterize DQ2-DM interaction, we introduced point mutations into DQ2 on the proposed DQ2-DM interface to restore the sensitivity of DQ2 to DM. The effects of mutations were investigated by measuring the peptide dissociation and exchange rate in vitro, CLIP and DQ2 expression on the cell surface, and the presentation of α-II-gliadin epitope (residues 62-70) to murine, DQ2-restricted T cell hybridomas. We found that the three α-chain mutations (α+53G, α+53R, or αY22F) decreased the intrinsic stability of peptide-class II complex. More interestingly, the α+53G mutant restored DQ2 sensitivity to DM, likely due to improved interaction with DM. Our data also suggest that α-II-gliadin 62-70 is a DM-suppressed epitope. The DQ2 resistance to DM changes the fate of this peptide from a cryptic to an immunodominant epitope. Our findings elucidate the structural basis for reduced DQ2-DM interaction and have implications for mechanisms underlying disease associations of DQ2.