IDENTIFICATION OF CYTOTOXIC T-CELL EPITOPES ON THE VP3 AND VP6 ROTAVIRUS PROTEINS

It has been shown previously that the viral glycoprotein VP7 is a majo r target of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) induced by bovine rotavirus RF in C57BL/6 mice. Here we show that these RF-specific CTLs recogniz e target cells infected with a recombinant vaccinia virus (rVV) expres sing the SA11 (simian rotavirus) VP6 but not those infected with rVVs that express RF VP1, VP2 or VP3 core proteins. After immunization of m ice with insect cells infected with recombinant baculoviruses that exp ress the corresponding RF proteins a strong specific CTL response was generated against target cells infected with VP6 rVV and VP3 rVV, a we ak one against the VP2 rVV but none against the VP1 rVV. K-b-restricte d CTL epitopes were identified on VP6 and VP3 using allele-specific mo tifs. When peptides corresponding to these epitopes were used to resti mulate in vitro the spleen cells from RF-immunized mice, CTLs specific for each peptide and its corresponding rVV were induced.