Vet World   Vol.17   August-2024  Article - 3 

Research Article

Veterinary World, 17(8): 1672-1679

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2024.1672-1679

Effects of combined cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 and programed death 1 ligand-receptor blockade on interferon-gamma production in bovine leukemia virus-infected cattle

Sergey Borovikov1,2, Kanat Tursunov1, Zhansaya Adish1,3, Laura Tokhtarova1, and Kanatbek Mukantayev1
1. Laboratory of Immunochemistry and Immunobiotechnology, National Center for Biotechnology, Astana, Kazakhstan.
2. Department of Microbiology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Technology, S. Seifullin Kazakh Agrotechnical Research University, Astana, Kazakhstan.
3. Department of Natural Sciences, L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, Astana, Kazakhstan.

Background and Aim: In chronic viral infections, cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4) and programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) significantly suppress immune responses. The CTLA-4 receptor abundance in regulatory T cells showed a positive association with viral load and a negative association with interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) production in bovine leukemia virus (BLV)-infected cattle. Blocking this receptor boosted IFN-γ production, recovering immune response against this illness. In human cancer patients, not everyone responded positively to non-immunotherapy using CTLA-4 receptor antibodies. The present study analyzed the synergistic effects of CTLA-4 and PD-L1 receptor blockade on IFN-γ production in BLV+ cattle in vitro.

Materials and Methods: The genes for bovine CTLA-4 and PD-L1 were artificially produced. The amino acid sequences of the extracellular receptor domains were sourced from the National Center for Biotechnology Information PubMed database. The western blotting and liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) techniques were employed for the characterization of recombinant CTLA-4 (rCTLA-4) and recombinant PD-L1 (rPD-L1) proteins. The immunoinhibitory effects of recombinant proteins in Staphylococcus enterotoxin B (SEB)-stimulated cattle peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were investigated. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to analyze monoclonal antibodies against rCTLA-4 and rPD-L1. Antibodies generated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of healthy and BLV-seropositive cows were employed to evaluate their blocking capabilities.

Results: The resulting recombinant proteins specifically reacted with commercial homogeneous monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) using ELISA and anti-His-tag mAbs using western blotting. Analysis of the proteins using LC-MS/MS revealed correspondence with the sequences of rCTLA-4 and rPD-L1 located in the Mascot database. rCTLA-4 and rPD-L1 proteins inhibited IFN-γ production in bovine PBMCs of activated SEB. When PBMCs from cows were cultured with activated SEB containing rCTLA-4 and rPD-L1, the mAbs increased IFN-γ production in PBMCs. The combined cultivation of mAbs and PBMCs from BLV+ cattle enhanced IFN-γ production in the cells.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that the combined blockade of bovine CTLA-4 and PD-L1 receptors can be used as a therapy for bovine leukemia. However, it was shown that a single PBMC sample from a BLV-positive donor did not amplify the synergistic effect. Therefore, it is necessary to perform further studies on a larger population and assessing a wider range of cytokines.

Keywords: bovine, bovine leukemia virus, cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4, interferon-gamma, programmed death ligand 1.


How to cite this article: Borovikov S, Tursunov K, Adish Z, Tokhtarova L, and Mukantayev K (2024) Effects of combined cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 and programed death 1 ligand-receptor blockade on interferon-gamma production in bovine leukemia virus-infected cattle, Veterinary World, 17(8): 1672-1679.

Received: 2024-05-11    Accepted: 2024-07-02    Published online: 2024-08-03

Corresponding author: Kanat Tursunov    E-mail: kanat_tka@mail.ru

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2024.1672-1679

Copyright: Borovikov, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/ publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.