Quantitation of CD8+ T cell responses to newly identified HLA-A*0201-restricted T cell epitopes conserved among vaccinia and variola (smallpox) viruses.

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Research Update

 

Quantitation of CD8+ T cell responses to newly identified HLA-A*0201-restricted T cell epitopes conserved among vaccinia and variola (smallpox) viruses.
Terajima , M. et al.
J. Exp. Med. 2003 197:927-932
MEDLINE   Full Text   
Commentary by Mark Slifka slifkam@ohsu.edu 
2 June 2003
Concern about the use of smallpox as a bioweapon has renewed interest in smallpox vaccination. However, testing new vaccine candidates has been complicated by the lack of knowledge regarding the T cell epitopes expressed both by smallpox (variola)and by vaccinia, the virus used for smallpox vaccination.

Terajima et al. used a human leukocyte antigen- (HLA-) binding prediction algorithm to identify potential immunogenic peptides and in vitro cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) assays to confirm that two of the candidates were HLA-A*0201-restricted vaccinia epitopes. These two epitopes are well-conserved among other orthopoxviruses including Variolamajor, Variolaminor, Monkeypox and Cowpox. Following immunization with vaccinia, the immune response against these two peptides accounted for 6% to 35% of the total interferon gamma-producing peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) quantitated by ELISPOT assays.

Identification of these epitopes will enable the direct analysis and quantitation of the virus-specific CD8+ T cell responses during and after smallpox vaccination and represents a substantial step forward in the evaluation of future vaccine candidates.


© Elsevier Limited 2003

 

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