THE N-TERMINAL 303 AMINO-ACIDS OF THE HUMAN CYTOMEGALOVIRUS ENVELOPE GLYCOPROTEIN B (UL55) AND THE EXON-4 REGION OF THE MAJOR IMMEDIATE-EARLY PROTEIN-1 (UL123) INDUCE A CYTOTOXIC T-CELL RESPONSE

We reported earlier that an adenovirus (Ad) recombinant expressing the full-length human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) glycoprotein B (gB) gene ind uces gB-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses in CBA (H-2(k) ) mice (Berencsi et al., J. Gen. Virol. 74, 257-2512, 1993). Here we s how that mice immunized with Ad recombinant viruses expressing truncat ed forms of the gB gene containing the first 700 (Ad-700), 465 (Ad-465 ) or 303 (Ad-303) amino acids of gB or an Ad construct containing exon 4 (E4) of the HCMV immediate early 1 (IE1) gene (Ad-IE1 (E4)) demonst rate HCMV-specific CTL responses, These data suggest the importance of the first 303 amino acids of the gB polypeptide and the IE1 E4 produc t in designing a vaccine to induce anti-HCMV CTL responses. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.