For the preparation of the affinity columns, panHLA-I and panHLA-II antibodies were purified from HB95 cells and HB145 cells (ATCC, Manassas, VA), respectively. We cross-linked the antibodies to Protein-A Sepharose beads (Invitrogen, CA) with 20 mM dimethyl pimelimidate in 0.2 M sodium borate buffer pH9. Tumour amount that has been available for this research varied significantly, from about 0.1 g to 4 × 1 g in Mel15. For the purification of HLA complexes, snap-frozen melanoma tissue samples were homogenized for 10 s on ice using ULTRA-TURRAX (IKA, Staufen, Germany) in a tube containing 5–10 ml of lysis buffer and incubated at 4 °C for 1 h. The lysis buffer contained 0.25% sodium deoxycholate, 0.2 mM iodoacetamide, 1 mM EDTA, 1:200 Protease Inhibitors Cocktail (Sigma-Aldrich, MO), 1 mM PMSF, 1% octyl-β-D glucopyranoside (Sigma-Aldrich, MO) in PBS. The lysates were cleared by 20 min centrifugation at 40,000g. Lysates were passed through a column containing Protein-A Sepharose beads (Invitrogen, CA) to deplete the endogenous antibodies. Subsequently, HLA-I molecules were immunoaffinity purified from cleared lysate with the W6/32 antibody covalently bound to Protein-A Sepharose beads (Invitrogen, Camarillo, CA). HLA-II molecules were then purified by transferring the flow through onto similar affinity columns containing the HB-145 antibody. Affinity columns were washed first with 10 column volumes of 150 mM NaCl, 20 mM Tris–HCl (buffer A), 10 column volumes of 400 mM NaCl, 20 mM Tris–HCl, 10 volumes of buffer A again, and finally with seven column volumes of 20 mM Tris–HCl, pH 8.0. HLA molecules were eluted at room temperature by adding 500 μl of 0.1 N acetic acid, in total seven elutions for each sample25 .
Eluted HLA peptides and the subunits of the HLA complexes were loaded on Sep-Pak tC18 (Waters, MA) cartridges that were prewashed with 80% acetonitrile (ACN) in 0.1% trifluoracetic acid (TFA) and with 0.1% TFA. The peptides were separated from the much more hydrophobic HLA heavy chains and B2M on the C18 cartridges by eluting them with 30% CAN in 0.1% TFA. They were further purified using a Silica C-18 column tips (Harvard Apparatus, Holliston MA) and eluted again with 30% ACN in 0.1% TFA. The peptides were concentrated and the volume was reduced to 15 μl using vacuum centrifugation. Remaining immunoaffinity purified HLA heavy chains and the B2M molecules were eluted from the Sep-Pak tC18 cartridges with 80% ACN in 0.1%TFA. For western-blot detection, 1% of each of those protein containing samples were used. Anti human B2M antibody EP2978Y (1:5,000, Abcam, Cambridge, United Kingdom) was used and was detected with donkey anti-rabbit IgG HRP conjugate secondary antibody (1:5,000, Thermo Fisher Scientific) in a peroxidase assay using SuperSignal West Pico Chemiluminescent substrate (Thermo Fisher Scientific).
Eluted HLA peptides and the subunits of the HLA complexes were loaded on Sep-Pak tC18 (Waters, MA) cartridges that were prewashed with 80% acetonitrile (ACN) in 0.1% trifluoracetic acid (TFA) and with 0.1% TFA. The peptides were separated from the much more hydrophobic HLA heavy chains and B2M on the C18 cartridges by eluting them with 30% CAN in 0.1% TFA. They were further purified using a Silica C-18 column tips (Harvard Apparatus, Holliston MA) and eluted again with 30% ACN in 0.1% TFA. The peptides were concentrated and the volume was reduced to 15 μl using vacuum centrifugation. Remaining immunoaffinity purified HLA heavy chains and the B2M molecules were eluted from the Sep-Pak tC18 cartridges with 80% ACN in 0.1%TFA. For western-blot detection, 1% of each of those protein containing samples were used. Anti human B2M antibody EP2978Y (1:5,000, Abcam, Cambridge, United Kingdom) was used and was detected with donkey anti-rabbit IgG HRP conjugate secondary antibody (1:5,000, Thermo Fisher Scientific) in a peroxidase assay using SuperSignal West Pico Chemiluminescent substrate (Thermo Fisher Scientific).
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