First Author | Vijayakrishnan L | Year | 2004 |
Journal | Immunity | Volume | 20 |
Issue | 5 | Pages | 563-75 |
PubMed ID | 15142525 | Mgi Jnum | J:90474 |
Mgi Id | MGI:3043914 | Doi | 10.1016/s1074-7613(04)00110-4 |
Citation | Vijayakrishnan L, et al. (2004) An autoimmune disease-associated CTLA-4 splice variant lacking the B7 binding domain signals negatively in T cells. Immunity 20(5):563-75 |
abstractText | Cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 (CTLA-4) plays a critical role in downregulating T cell responses. A number of autoimmune diseases have shown genetic linkage to the CTLA-4 locus. We have cloned and expressed an alternatively spliced form of CTLA-4 that has genetic linkage with type I diabetes in the NOD mice. This splice variant of CTLA-4, named ligand-independent CTLA-4 (liCTLA-4), lacks exon2 including the MYPPPY motif essential for binding to the costimulatory ligands B7-1 and B7-2. Here we show that liCTLA-4 is expressed as a protein in primary T cells and strongly inhibits T cell responses by binding and dephosphorylating the TcRzeta chain. Expression of liCTLA-4, but not full-length CTLA-4 (flCTLA-4), was higher in memory/regulatory T cells from diabetes-resistant NOD congenic mice compared to susceptible NOD mice. These data suggest that increased expression and negative signaling delivered by the liCTLA-4 may regulate development of T cell-mediated autoimmune diseases. |