Changes in the repertoire of peptides bound to HLA-B27 subtypes and to site-specific mutants inside and outside pocket B

HLA-B27 subtypes share many structural features, including their pocket B, which interacts with a conserved Arg residue at the second position of B*2705-bound peptides. Subtypes differ among each other at other locations in the peptide binding site. In this study, metabolic labeling and radiochemical pool sequencing were used to address the following issues: (a) presence of the Arg 2 (R2) motif among peptides bound to the various HLA-B27 subtypes; (b) influence of mutations inside and outside pocket B on this motif; and (c) the degree of similarity among the peptide pools bound to the various B27 subtypes. Sequencing of Arg-labeled peptide pools extracted from B*2701 to B*2706, and from two site-directed mutants of B*2705 with changes outside pocket B, indicated that all of these molecules bind peptides with Arg at position 2. Peptides from several mutants with changes altering the structure of pocket B, and from one mutant at the pocket B rim, also retained the R2 motif. However, this was absent in the peptide pool extracted from the M45 mutant, in which the negative charge of pocket B, conferred to HLA-B27 by Glu45, was canceled. These results indicate that alterations outside pocket B, and even disruption of the network of hydrogen bonds that stabilizes Arg binding in pocket B, do not impair binding of peptides bearing the R2 motif, but a nonconservative substitution at position 45 does. As a substantial fraction of anti-B*2705 cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) clones crossreact with the M45 mutant (Villadangos, J., B. Galocha, D. López, V. Calvo, and J. A. López de Castro. 1992. J. Immunol. 149:505) this result suggest that determinant mimicry by nonidentical peptides may frequently account for unexpected CTL crossreactions. Metabolic labeling with various other amino acids and radiochemical sequencing revealed similarities, but also substantial differences, among the peptide pools from the various HLA-B27 subtypes. This strongly suggests that many peptides bind to multiple subtypes, but significant subsets of peptides bound to a given HLA-B27 subtype do not bind to other subtypes or do so with greatly altered efficiency. These results indicate the importance of polymorphism outside pocket B in modulating peptide binding to HLA-B27.