Impact of the NK Cell Receptor LIR-1 (ILT-2/CD85j/LILRB1) on Cytotoxicity against Multiple Myeloma

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Clinical and Developmental Immunology Volume 2012, Article ID 652130, 13 pages doi:10.1155/2012/652130 Research Article Impact of the NK Cell Receptor LIR-1 (ILT-2/CD85j/LILRB1) on Cytotoxicity against Multiple Myeloma Silke Heidenreich,1 Christine zu Eulenburg,2 York Hildebrandt,1 Thomas Stübig,1 Heidi Sierich,3 Anita Badbaran,1 Thomas H. Eiermann,3 Thomas M. C. Binder,3 and Nicolaus Kröger1 1 Clinic for Stem Cell Transplantation, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistrasse 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany 2 Department of Medical Biometry and Epidemiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany 3 Department of Transfusion Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany Correspondence should be addressed to Nicolaus Kröger, Received 1 March 2012; Revised 27 March 2012; Accepted 27 March 2012 Academic Editor: Mohamad Mohty Copyright © 2012 Silke Heidenreich et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The role of different receptors in natural-killer- (NK-) cell-mediated cytotoxicity against multiple myeloma (MM) cells is unknown. We investigated if an enhancement of NK-cell-mediated cytotoxicity against MM could be reached by blocking of the inhibitory leukocyte immunoglobulin-like receptor 1 (LIR-1). Our investigations revealed high levels of LIR-1 expression not only on the NK cell line NK-92, but also on myeloma cells (MOLP-8, RPMI8226) as well as on a lymphoblastoid cell line (LBCL; IM-9). Subsequent cytotoxicity assays were designed to show the isolated effects of LIR-1 blocking on either the effector or the tumor side to rule out receptor-receptor interactions. Although NK-92 was shown to be capable of myeloma cell lysis, inhibition of LIR-1 on NK-92 did not enhance cytotoxicity. Targeting the receptor on MM and LBCL did not also alter NK-92- mediated lysis. We come to the conclusion that LIR-1 alone does not directly influence NK-cell-mediated cytotoxicity against myeloma. To our knowledge, this work provides the first investigation of the inhibitory capability of LIR-1 in NK-92-mediated cytotoxicity against MM and the first functional evaluation of LIR-1 on MM and LBCL. 1. Introduction Understanding of NK cell function has undergone a long process since their identification in 1975 [1]. NK cells have initially been regarded as part of the innate immune system, not allowing any modulation of action with respect to their changing microenvironment. Their pattern of inhibitory and activating receptors was considered to be sufficient to adequately detect tumor cells by the lack of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I molecules. Those tumor cells were killed instantly and without any obvious need of coactivation by other cells of the immune system [2]. This unique feature among lymphocytes has now been understood to be only the basic function of response, which is completed by diverse interactions with especially dendritic cells (DC) and T cells [3]. NK cells do extensively communicate with their surroundings, and their still-not-fully-deciphered set of receptors detects changes in the normal surface pattern on all types of tissues. NK cell receptors are functionally divided into activating and inhibitory receptors. Their main ligands are major histocompatibility complex I (MHC-I) molecules, while some of the receptors can directly recognize specific antigens on bacteria or damaged cells. Mainly three different subclasses of NK-cell receptors (NKRs) can be distinguished. LIR and killer immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) are type I transmembrane proteins of the immunoglobulin-like receptor superfamily (IgSF). Both recognize classical HLA class I molecules, while LIR can also interact with nonclassical HLA class I and bacteria with low binding affinities [2, 4–6]. The second group of natural cytotoxicity receptors (NCRs) also belongs to type I transmembrane proteins but has poorly defined ligands. Type II transmembrane proteins of the C-lectin type superfamily include natural killer cell 2 lectin-like receptor group 2 (NKG2) receptors that form heterodimers with CD94 [2]. LIRs are expressed on subsets of NK cells and T cells, as well as on monocytes, B cells, and DC, with the widest distribution for LIR-1 [7–10]. LIR-1 is an inhibitory receptor also known as immunoglobulin-like transcript 2 (ILT-2)/CD85j or leukocyte immunoglobulin-like receptor, subfamily B member 1 (LILRB1) [7]. It has first been detected in searching for the counterpart of UL18, a cytomegalovirus encoded HLA class I homolog that is expressed on infected cells [8, 11, 12]. MM is an incurable disease that is characterized by the clonal proliferation of terminally differentiated plasma cells [13, 14]. Stem cell transplantation (SCT) is so far the only option to achieve long time remission of the disease [15]. To improve the outcome of MM patients, approaches like immunomodulation and cellular therapy are under investigation. NK cells are an attractive candidate for immune therapy. They kill tumor cells without antigen-specific priming [2] and are the the predominant lymphocyte subset within the first 90 days after transplantation [16–19]. LIR-1 is one of the main inhibitory NK cell receptors in this early phase after SCT [10, 16, 20]. We therefore investigated the influence of LIR-1 on myeloma defeat. Hereby, we studied the effects of LIR-1 blocking of NK-92 as well as on a panel of tumor cell lines including MM. To our knowledge, these experiments provide the first data concerning the influence of isolated LIR-1 inhibition on NK cells with respect to myeloma cell lysis. Moreover, they provide the first functional study of LIR-1 on MM and on other tumor entities, taking into account its broad distribution among tissues. 2. Material and Methods 2.1. Cells. Unless otherwise stated, all media and supplements were obtained from Life Technologies. Natural killer cell line NK-92 was cultured in alpha-MEM supplemented with Earl’s Salts and L-Glutamine, 12.5% equine serum, 12.5% fetal calf serum, 0.2 mM inositol (Sigma-Aldrich), 0.1 mM 2-mercaptoethanol (Sigma-Aldrich), 0.02 mM folic acid (Sigma-Aldrich), and 1% PenStrep. Cells were splitted every third day and received 200 U/mL rhIL-2 (CellSystems) with the fresh medium. Myeloma cell line MOLP-8 was cultured in RPMI1640 with 20% FCS and 1% PenStrep while IM-9, RPMI 8226, HL60, and K562 received the same medium and antibiotics but only 10% FCS. COS-7 cells were cultured in DMEM with 10% FCS and 1% PenStrep. JEG-3 was grown in Ham’s F12 with 10% FCS and 1% PenStrep. 2.2. Flow Cytometry. Monoclonal antibodies (mAb) were phycoerythrin- (PE-) conjugated CD2 (RPA-2.10, BDP harmingen), CD159a (Z199, Beckman Coulter), CD85j (HP-F1, Beckman Coulter); Pacific Blue-conjugated CD16 (MOPC-21, BD Pharmingen) (...truncated)