Spatial Regulation of T-Cell Signaling by Programmed Death-Ligand 1 on Wireframe DNA Origami Flat Sheets.

Fang T, Alvelid J, Spratt J, Ambrosetti E, Testa I, Teixeira AI

ACS Nano 15 (2) 3441-3452 [2021-02-23; online 2021-02-08]

Programmed Death-1 (PD-1) is a coinhibitory receptor expressed on activated T cells that suppresses T-cell signaling and effector functions. It has been previously shown that binding to its ligand PD-L1 induces a spatial reorganization of PD-1 receptors into microclusters on the cell membrane. However, the roles of the spatial organization of PD-L1 on PD-1 clustering and T-cell signaling have not been elucidated. Here, we used DNA origami flat sheets to display PD-L1 ligands at defined nanoscale distances and investigated their ability to inhibit T-cell activation in vitro. We found that DNA origami flat sheets modified with CD3 and CD28 activating antibodies (FS-α-CD3-CD28) induced robust T-cell activation. Co-treatment with flat sheets presenting PD-L1 ligands separated by ∼200 nm (FS-PD-L1-200), but not 13 nm (FS-PD-L1-13) or 40 nm (FS-PD-L1-40), caused an inhibition of T-cell signaling, which increased with increasing molar ratio of FS-PD-L1-200 to FS-α-CD3-CD28. Furthermore, FS-PD-L1-200 induced the formation of smaller PD-1 nanoclusters and caused a larger reduction in IL-2 expression compared to FS-PD-L1-13. Together, these findings suggest that the spatial organization of PD-L1 determines its ability to regulate T-cell signaling and may guide the development of future nanomedicine-based immunomodulatory therapies.

Ilaria Testa

SciLifeLab Fellow

PubMed 33556239

DOI 10.1021/acsnano.0c10632

Crossref 10.1021/acsnano.0c10632

pmc: PMC7905882


Publications 9.5.0