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Identification of a novel myosin antigen activating CD8+ T cells in C57BL/6 mice

Richter, L.; Bauer, M.; Bernsen, C.; Vogel, E.; Mahmud, Z.; Saliba, A.-E.; Schulz, R.; Frantz, S.; Ashour, D.; Ramos, G. C.

2024-07-26 immunology
10.1101/2024.07.26.605251 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Heart-specific T cells play important roles in myocardial diseases, including myocarditis, myocardial infarction, and heart failure. However, only few cardiac antigens and their respective specific T cell receptors (TCRs) have been validated so far. Therefore, we sought to identify new cardiac T cell epitopes in C57BL/6 mice and to characterize the specific TCRs. Antigen mapping of myosin heavy chain alpha (MYHCA) led to the identification of a 9-mer epitope (MYHCA724-732) recognized by CD8+ T cells. Single-cell TCR sequencing (scTCR-seq) analysis of MYHCA-stimulated CD8+ T cells enabled the identification of distinct TCRs enriched on specific T cells. Selected TCRs inferred from scTCR-seq data were then expressed on reporter cell lines and functionally validated. Our study expands the toolkit required to study heart-directed immune responses by revealing a new cardiac antigen and specific TCRs. These tools will enable in vivo characterization of myosin-specific CD8+ T cells in murine models of myocardial diseases.

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