Mtb HLA-E tetramer sorted CD8+ T-cells have a diverse TCR repertoire

HLA-E molecules can present self and pathogen-derived peptides to both NK-cells and T-cells. T-cells that recognize HLA-E peptides via their T-cell receptor (TCR) are termed donor-unrestricted T-cells due to restricted allelic variation of HLA-E. The composition and repertoire of HLA-E TCRs is not known so far. We performed TCR sequencing on CD8+ T-cells from 21 individuals recognizing HLA-E tetramers (TM) folded with 2 Mtb HLA-E restricted peptides. We sorted HLA-E Mtb TM+ and TMCD8+ T-cells directly ex vivo and performed bulk RNA-sequencing and single cell TCR sequencing. The identified TCR repertoire was diverse and showed no conservation between and within individuals. TCRs selected from our single cell TCR sequencing data could be activated upon HLA-E/peptide stimulation, although not robust, reflecting potentially weak interactions between HLA-E peptide complexes and TCRs. Thus, HLA-E Mtb specific T-cells have a highly diverse TCR repertoire. To determine RNA expression of HLA-E restricted Mtb specific CD8+ T-cells we stained PBMCs with HLA-E tetramers folded with two Mtb-derived peptides and sorted the tetramer positive CD8+ T-cells to perform RNAseq on these cells.