Bovine gamma/delta T cells are stimulated by bovine coronavirus antigens identified by a soluble T cells receptor

Abstract

Gamma/delta (γδ) T cells in cattle account for an abundant T cell population. However, little is known regarding the function of γδ T cells as immune cells compared to αβ T cells. Not many pathogen-related antigens have been defined and known to stimulate γδ T cells. To address this information gap, we constructed a soluble receptor for bovine γδ T cells (sγδTCR) that was later used to identify two proteins (156 kDa and 102 kDa) or protein fragments expressed by bovine coronavirus (BCov). The molecular weight of the larger protein suggests it could be the spike glycoprotein of BCov. Subsequently, we used the identified viral proteins to study the reactivity of bovine γδ T cells. In vitro assays showed that purified preparations of the two proteins stimulated WC1+ γδ T cells isolated from cattle. A 4-fold increase in IFN production and a significantly higher expression of MHC class II was observed. However, these viral ligands could not stimulate γδ T cells to synthesize IL-8 or GM-CSF, known to be produced by γδ T cells when stimulated with bacterial antigens. Although the γδ T cells assessed here appeared activated by way of IFN and MHC II expression, surface markers such as CD2, CD25, CD44, CD62L and CD335 were not expressed at significant levels. Further, the activation elicited by viral ligands was not sufficient to induce cytotoxic capability in γδ T cells in vitro as measured by a flow cytometry-based cytotoxicity assay. This in vitro study shows that WC1+ γδ T cells can directly recognize viral antigen