Figure 4.

An elevated pro‐inflammatory cytokine secretion was associated with the dopamine‐2 receptor (D2R) peptide sub‐pools which also activated D2R‐specific T cells. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from D2R‐specific T‐cell‐positive patients (n = 6) were stimulated with the sub‐pools of immunodominant master pools 4, 5 and 10. The supernatant of each sub‐pool stimulation was tested in duplicates on a multiplex cytometric bead array and IFN‐γ ELISA to characterise the cytokine secretions. Elevated levels of pro‐inflammatory cytokines in each patient were found to be predominantly secreted when the PBMCs were stimulated by D2R sub‐pools 4A, 5B and 10B as compared to the other sub‐pools 4B, 5A, 10A and 10C. These sub‐pools that induced these increased cytokine secretions largely corresponded to the sub‐pools that also elicited activation of D2R‐specific T cells, as specified beneath each patient.