IMMUNOREGULATION BY ALLERGEN-SPECIFIC T-CELL CLONES

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The interaction of allergen with immune cells, in particular thymus derived lymphocytes and antigen presenting cells, is critical to the development of allergy in humans. The goals of this proposal involve an examination of the specificity of interaction between the antigenic epitopes of allergen derived from murine tissues, antigen presenting cells and specific immune T cells derived from individuals allergic to laboratory mice. The direction of these studies will be focused on the development of allergen specific human T cell clones and then an in depth characterization of these clones in terms of the structure of the allergen recognized by T cells in association with class II major histocompatibility complex antigens and the requirements for activation for the T cell clones. These human T cell clones will also be studied for their potential immunoregulatory effects in vitro and for their ability to moderate the production of specific immunoglobulin by allergen specific B lymphocytes. In addition, the potential contribution of specific allergen structure to the specificity and activation of the human T cell clones will be examined via the generation of peptide fragments related to primary structure of the putative mouse allergen derived from concentrated murine urine. A better understanding of the interaction of allergen with accessory cells and immune T cells will provide new and unique ways to potentially regulate specific immune responses and this may be of considerable value in the immunotherapy of allergic disease and in fact in the therapy of immune base diseases in general.