ANTIGENIC SPECIFICITIES OF HUMAN CD4(-CELL CLONES RECOVERED FROM RECURRENT GENITAL HERPES-SIMPLEX VIRUS TYPE-2 LESIONS() T)

Lesions resulting from recurrent genital herpes simplex virus (HSV) in fection are characterized by infiltration of CD4(+) lymphocytes. We ha ve investigated the antigenic specificity of 47 HSV-specific CD4(+) T- cell clones recovered from the HSV-2 buttock and thigh lesions of five patients. Clones with proliferative responses to recombinant truncate d glycoprotein B (gB) or go of HSV-2 or purified natural gC of HSV-2 c omprised a minority of the total number of HSV-specific clones isolate d from lesions. The gC2- and gD2-specific CD4(+) clones had cytotoxic activity. The approximate locations of the HSV-2 genes encoding HSV-2 type-specific CD4(+) antigens have been determined by using HSV-1 x HS V-2 intertypic recombinant virus and include the approximate map regio ns 0.30 to 0.46, 0.59 to 0.67, 0.67 to 0.73, and 0.82 to 1.0 map units . The antigenic specificity of an HLA DQ2-restricted, HSV-2 type-speci fic T-cell clone was mapped to amino acids 425 to 444 of V16 of HSV-2 by sequential use of an intertypic recombinant virus containing VP16 o f HSV-2 in an HSV-1 background, recombinant VP16 fusion proteins, and synthetic peptides. Each of the remaining four patients also yielded a t least one type-specific T-cell clone reactive with an HSV-2 epitope mapping to approximately 0.67 to 0.73 map units. The antigenic specifi cities of lesion-derived CD4(+) T-cell clones are quite diverse and in clude at least 10 epitopes. Human T-cell clones reactive with gC and V P16 are reported here for the first time.