Leonard Chess

Bio: Leonard Chess is an academic researcher from Columbia University. The author has contributed to research in topics: T cell & Cytotoxic T cell. The author has an hindex of 60, co-authored 178 publications receiving 14008 citations. Previous affiliations of Leonard Chess include Harvard University & Biogen Idec.

Tumor necrosis factor/cachectin interacts with endothelial cell receptors to induce release of interleukin 1.

Abstract: Tumor necrosis factor/cachectin (TNF) has been implicated as a mediator of the host response in sepsis and neoplasia. Recent work has shown that TNF can modulate endothelial cell hemostatic properties, suggesting that endothelium is a target tissue for TNF. This led us to examine whether endothelial cells have specific binding sites for TNF and augment the biological response to TNF by elaborating the inflammatory mediator, IL-1. Incubation of 125I-recombinant human TNF with confluent, cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells resulted in time-dependent, reversible, and saturable binding. Binding was half-maximal at a TNF concentration of 105 +/- 40 pM, and at saturation 1,500 molecules were bound per cell. Heat-treated TNF, which is biologically inactive, did not bind to endothelium. In addition to surface binding, TNF induced the elaboration of IL-1 activity by endothelial cells in a time-dependent manner. Generation of IL-1 activity required protein synthesis and was half-maximal at a TNF concentration of 50 +/- 20 pM. IL-1 activity from TNF-treated endothelium could be adsorbed by an immobilized antibody to IL-1. Heat-treated TNF was ineffective in eliciting endothelial cell IL-1. These data indicate that TNF can bind specifically to endothelium and initiate a cascade of inflammatory and coagulant events on the vessel surface potentially central to the host response to neoplasia and sepsis.

Content and organization of the human Ig VH locus: definition of three new VH families and linkage to the Ig CH locus.

Abstract: We present a detailed analysis of the content and organization of the human immunoglobulin VH locus. Human VH genes representing five distinct families were isolated, including novel members belonging to two out of three of the known VH gene families (VH1 and VH3) as well as members of three new families (VH4, VH5, and VH6). We report the nucleotide sequence of 21 novel human VH genes, many of which belong to the three new VH gene families. In addition, we provide a preliminary analysis of the organization of these gene segments over the full extent of the locus. We find that the five multi-segment families (VH1-5) have members interspersed over nearly the full 1500-2000 kb of the VH locus, and estimate that the entire heavy chain locus covers 2500 kb or less. Finally, we provide the first report of the physical linkage of the variable and constant loci of a human Ig gene family by demonstrating that the most proximal known human VH segments lie within 100 kb of the constant region locus.

Identification of a novel surface protein on activated CD4+ T cells that induces contact-dependent B cell differentiation (help).

Abstract: CD4+ T lymphocytes provide contact-dependent stimuli to B cells that are critical for the generation of specific antibody responses in a process termed T helper function. The surface structures on activated CD4+ T cells that mediate this function are not fully known. We previously reported the isolation of a functionally unique subclone of the Jurkat leukemic T cell line (D1.1) that constitutively expressed contact-dependent helper effector function. To identify T cell surface molecules that mediate contact-dependent T helper function, a monoclonal antibody (mAb), designated 5c8, was generated that inhibits D1.1-mediated B cell activation and immunoprecipitates a novel 30-kD protein structure from surface-iodinated D1.1 cells. Normal CD4+ T cells express 5c8 antigen (Ag) transiently 5-6 h after activation by phorbol myristate acetate and phytohemagglutinin with maximal expression 5-6 h after activation and absence of expression by 24 h. In contrast, neither resting nor activated CD8+ T cells express 5c8 Ag. In functional studies, mAb 5c8 inhibits the ability of fixed, activated CD4+ T cells to induce B cell surface CD23 expression. In addition, mAb 5c8 inhibits the ability of CD4+ T cells to direct terminal B cell differentiation driven by pokeweed mitogen. Taken together, these data suggest that 5c8 Ag is a novel, activation-induced surface T cell protein that is involved in mediating a contact-dependent element of the helper effector function of CD4+ T lymphocytes.

A functional T3 molecule associated with a novel heterodimer on the surface of immature human thymocytes.

Abstract: The known T-cell receptors (TCRs) involved in the recognition of antigen and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules are glycoproteins comprised of polymorphic disulphide-linked alpha- and beta-chains. The genes encoding these chains are homologous to immunoglobulin genes and consist of V (variable), J (joining) and C (constant) regions that rearrange during development. TCRs are expressed relatively late in thymocyte development and only in association with an invariant molecular complex of proteins termed T3. Immature thymocytes do not express the TCR-T3 complex but do express messenger RNA encoding a third rearranging T-cell receptor-like gene, termed T gamma. Here we report a clone of normal immature T4-T8- human thymocytes, designated CII, which does not express mature mRNA for T alpha or T beta genes, but does express high levels of T gamma mRNA. This clone also expresses high levels of surface T3, and antibodies to T3 induce immunologically relevant functions in CII cells. Immunoprecipitation of CII surface-labelled proteins with anti-T3 co-precipitates a T3 molecular complex together with two additional and novel peptides of relative molecular mass (Mr), 44,000 (44K) and 62,000 (62K).

Molecular classification of cancer: class discovery and class prediction by gene expression monitoring.

Abstract: Although cancer classification has improved over the past 30 years, there has been no general approach for identifying new cancer classes (class discovery) or for assigning tumors to known classes (class prediction). Here, a generic approach to cancer classification based on gene expression monitoring by DNA microarrays is described and applied to human acute leukemias as a test case. A class discovery procedure automatically discovered the distinction between acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) without previous knowledge of these classes. An automatically derived class predictor was able to determine the class of new leukemia cases. The results demonstrate the feasibility of cancer classification based solely on gene expression monitoring and suggest a general strategy for discovering and predicting cancer classes for other types of cancer, independent of previous biological knowledge.

Transgenic non-human animals capable of producing heterologous antibodies

Abstract: The invention relates to transgenic non-human animals capable of producing heterologous antibodies and methods for producing human sequence antibodies which bind to human antigens with substantial affinity.

T-cell antigen receptor genes and T-cell recognition.

Abstract: The four distinct T-cell antigen receptor polypeptides (alpha, beta, gamma, delta) form two different heterodimers (alpha:beta and gamma:delta) that are very similar to immunoglobulins in primary sequence, gene organization and modes of rearrangement. Whereas antibodies have both soluble and membrane forms that can bind to antigens alone, T-cell receptors exist only on cell surfaces and recognize antigen fragments only when they are embedded in major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules. Patterns of diversity in T-cell receptor genes together with structural features of immunoglobulin and MHC molecules suggest a model for how this recognition might occur. This view of T-cell recognition has implications for how the receptors might be selected in the thymus and how they (and immunoglobulins) may have arisen during evolution.

Kaposi's Sarcoma–Associated Herpesvirus-Like DNA Sequences in AIDS-Related Body-Cavity–Based Lymphomas

Abstract: Background DNA fragments that appeared to belong to an unidentified human herpesvirus were recently found in more than 90 percent of Kaposi's sarcoma lesions associated with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). These fragments were also found in 6 of 39 tissue samples without Kaposi's sarcoma, including 3 malignant lymphomas, from patients with AIDS, but not in samples from patients without AIDS. Methods We examined the DNA of 193 lymphomas from 42 patients with AIDS and 151 patients who did not have AIDS. We searched the DNA for sequences of Kaposi's sarcoma–associated herpesvirus (KSHV) by Southern blot hybridization, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), or both. The PCR products in the positive samples were sequenced and compared with the KSHV sequences in Kaposi's sarcoma tissues from patients with AIDS. Results KSHV sequences were identified in eight lymphomas in patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus. All eight, and only these eight, were body-cavity–based lymphomas — that...