Induction of hyporesponsiveness to intact foreign protein via retroviral-mediated gene expression: The IgG scaffold is important for induction and maintenance of immune hyporesponsiveness

IgG molecules can be highly tolerogenic carriers for associated antigens. Previously, we reported that recipients of bone marrow or lipopolysaccharide-stimulated B-cell blasts, both of which were retrovirally gene-transferred with an immunodominant peptide in-frame with the variable region of a murine IgG heavy chain, were rendered profoundly unresponsive to that epitope. To further investigate whether tolerance to larger molecules can be achieved via this approach and whether the IgG scaffold is important for induction and maintenance of immunological tolerance, we engineered two retroviral constructs encoding the cI λ repressor (MBAE-1–102 and MBAE-1–102-IgG) for gene transfer. Our results show that recipients of bone marrow or peripheral B cells, transduced with the MBAE-1–102-IgG recombinant, are hyporesponsive to p1–102. In addition, the self-IgG scaffold enhanced the induction and maintenance of such an immune hyporesponsiveness. Thus, our studies demonstrate that in vivo-expressed IgG heavy chain fusion protein can be processed and presented on the appropriate MHC class II, resulting in hyporesponsiveness to that antigen and offering an additional therapeutic approach to autoimmune diseases.