Specific Instability of HLA-A*03

HEK-293 is a highly transfectable human cell line widely used as a model for protein expression. Since large amounts of cells are often required for the purification of HLA immunopeptidomes, suspension-growing variants, such as HEK-293F, facilitate the generation of sufficient cell quantities. The H...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Area Navarro, Maria Dolores, Pastor-Moreno, Alba, Scholz, Erika Margaret, Cerqueira, Américo, Tirado-Herranz, Adrián, Marcilla, Miguel, Canals, Francesc|||0000-0002-0650-1135, Juan, Manel|||0000-0002-3064-1648, Palacio Cornide, José Ramón|||0000-0002-4949-123X, Álvarez Pérez, Iñaki|||0000-0001-9484-0868
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:323477
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/323477
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.3390/ijms262311357
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:HLA
Antigen presentation
Immunopeptidome
HEK-293
Peptides
Descripción
Sumario:HEK-293 is a highly transfectable human cell line widely used as a model for protein expression. Since large amounts of cells are often required for the purification of HLA immunopeptidomes, suspension-growing variants, such as HEK-293F, facilitate the generation of sufficient cell quantities. The HLA class I-typing of these cells is HLA-A*02:01, -A*03:01, -B*07:02, and -C*07:02. HEK-293T cells have been previously used as a source of HLA peptide ligands derived from SARS-CoV-2 proteins. In this study, we purified and analyzed the HLA-I immunopeptidome of HEK-293 and HEK-293F cells using mass spectrometry. Cell surface expression of specific HLA-I allotypes was determined using flow cytometry with allele-specific antibodies. The HLA-I immunopeptidome of HEK-293 cells contained ligands from all three HLA-I allotypes, whereas that of HEK-293F cells lacked peptides derived from HLA-A*03:01. Flow cytometry experiments confirmed the absence of HLA-A*03:01 expression on the surface of HEK-293F cells. Additionally, we generated a HEK-293 transfectant co-expressing the β5i proteasome subunit and the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein. This transfectant showed selective loss of HLA-A*03:01 expression, suggesting that HEK-293 linages tend to specifically lose this allotype. We propose that HEK-293F cells are unsuitable for the identification of HLA-A*03:01 ligands or for stimulating T-cell responses restricted to this allele. Moreover, HLA-A*03:01 expression should be regularly monitored in HEK-293-derived cells.