An in vivo selection-derived d-peptide for engineering erythrocyte-binding antigens that promote immune tolerance

Abstract

<jats:p>When displayed on erythrocytes, peptides and proteins can drive antigen-specific immune tolerance. Here, we investigated a straightforward approach based on erythrocyte binding to promote antigen-specific tolerance to both peptides and proteins. We first identified a robust erythrocyte-binding ligand. A pool of one million fully <jats:sc>d</jats:sc>-chiral peptides was injected into mice, blood cells were isolated, and ligands enriched on these cells were identified using nano-liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. One round of selection yielded a murine erythrocyte-binding ligand with an 80 nM apparent dissociation constant, <jats:italic>K</jats:italic><jats:sub>d</jats:sub>. We modified an 83-kDa bacterial protein and a peptide antigen derived from ovalbumin (OVA) with the identified erythrocyte-binding ligand. An administration of the engineered bacterial protein led to decreased protein-specific antibodies in mice. Similarly, mice given the engineered OVA-derived peptide had decreased inflammatory anti-OVA CD8<jats:sup>+</jats:sup> T cell responses. These findings suggest that our tolerance-induction strategy is applicable to both peptide and protein antigens and that our in vivo selection strategy can be used for de novo discovery of robust erythrocyte-binding ligands.</jats:p>