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T cell reactions in patients showing adverse immune reactions to drugs
M P Zanni1, S von Greyerz, B Schnyder
1Institute of Immunology and Allergology, Inselspital, Bern, Switzerland.
Objective And Design:
To better understand how T cells react to small compounds, we investigated the in vitro T cell reactivity to drugs from drug allergic patients.
Material And Subjects:
Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of three drug allergic individuals were stimulated in vitro by different drugs.
Methods:
Proliferation was assayed by 3H-thymidine incorporation. Upregulation of activation parameter on T cells was done by immunofluorescence and cytokine release determined via standard ELISA.
Results:
Drugs can stimulate both CD4 and CD8 T-cell subsets. PenG-stimulated PBMC showed a heterogenous cytokine pattern and clones secreted high amounts of INF gamma. In contrast, sulfamethoxazole and lidocaine-stimulated PBMC secreted high levels of IL-5 and lidocaine-specific clones can be Th1 or Th2-like.
Conclusion:
Drug specific T cells play a pivotal role in drug hypersensitivity reactions, both by regulating the immune response and probably also as specific effector cells with different patterns of cytokine release.