Characterizing monkeypox virus specific CD8+ T cell epitopes in rhesus macaques

• Published in: Virology (New York, N.Y.) Vol. 447; no. 1; pp. 181 - 186
• Main Authors: Song, Haifeng, Sidney, John, Wiseman, Roger W, Josleyn, Nicole, Cohen, Melanie, Blaney, Joseph E, Jahrling, Peter B, Sette, Alessandro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01-12-2013
• Subjects: Animals; Bioinformatics analysis; CD8+ T cells; CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes - immunology; Elispot; Enzyme-Linked Immunospot Assay; Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte - immunology; Histocompatibility Antigens Class I - metabolism; Infectious Disease; Interferon-gamma - metabolism; Macaca mulatta; Monkeypox virus; Monkeypox virus - immunology; Peptides; Protein Binding; Rhesus; T cell epitopes; Variola; Bioinformatics analysis; Monkeypox virus; CD8+ T cells; Elispot; Rhesus; T cell epitopes; Peptides
• ISSN: 0042-6822; 1096-0341; 1096-0341
• DOI: 10.1016/j.virol.2013.09.003

Abstract To characterize T cell epitopes in monkeypox virus (MPXV) infected rhesus macaques, we utilized IFN γ Elispot assay to screen 400 predicted peptides from 20 MPXV proteins. Two peptides from the F8L protein, an analog of E9L protein in vaccinia, were found to elicit CD8+ T cell responses. Prediction and in vitro MHC binding analyses suggest that one is restricted by Mamu-A1⁎ 001 and another by Mamu-A1⁎ 002. The Mamu-A1⁎ 002 epitope is completely identical in all reported sequences for variola, vaccinia, cowpox and MPXV. The Mamu-A1⁎ 001 epitope is conserved in MPXV and vaccinia, and has one residue substitution (V6>I) in some cowpox sequences and all variola sequences. Given CD8+ T-cell epitopes from E9L were also identified in humans and mice, our data suggested that F8L/E9L may be a dominant pox viral protein for CD8+ T cell responses, and may be considered as a target when designing vaccines that target pox-specific T cell responses.