MAPPING T-CELL EPITOPES OF RUBELLA-VIRUS STRUCTURAL PROTEIN-E1, PROTEIN-E2, AND PROTEIN-C RECOGNIZED BY T-CELL LINES AND CLONES DERIVED FROM INFECTED AND IMMUNIZED POPULATIONS
D. Ou et al., MAPPING T-CELL EPITOPES OF RUBELLA-VIRUS STRUCTURAL PROTEIN-E1, PROTEIN-E2, AND PROTEIN-C RECOGNIZED BY T-CELL LINES AND CLONES DERIVED FROM INFECTED AND IMMUNIZED POPULATIONS, Journal of medical virology, 40(3), 1993, pp. 175-183
To design a safe and effective synthetic peptide vaccine against rubel
la virus (RV) infection, it is necessary to identify immunodominant T-
cell epitopes of RV structural proteins. To define such epitopes, 49 o
verlapping synthetic peptides (17-34 residues in length) corresponding
to more than 95% of the amino acid sequence of RV virion proteins El
(23 peptides) and C (11 peptides) and all of E2 (15 peptides) were syn
thesized and tested for their capacities to induce proliferative respo
nses of rubella-specific T-cell lines and T-cell clones derived from 4
study groups (5 women infected with RV in pregnancy, 5 patients with
congenital rubella syndrome, 5 seropositive healthy donors, and 5 RV v
accine recipients). The most frequently recognized epitopes were El-21
(residues 358-377) with 11/20 responders, E2-4 (residues 54-74) with
6/20 responders, and C11 (residues 255-280) with 11/20 responders, res
pectively. El-10 (residues 174-193), El-16 (residues 272-291) and El-1
8 (residues 307-326) were responded to strongly by corresponding T-cel
l clones, and were recognized by 4 or 5 T-cell lines. T-cell lines der
ived from three congenital rubella syndrome patients did not respond t
o any of the synthetic peptides. The results showed that more T-cell e
pitopes were present in El (19/23) and C (10/11) than in E2 (8/15). Th
e identification of T cell sites recognized frequently by RV-infected
or -immunized populations could provide the basis for selecting candid
ate T-cell epitopes for the development of an effective synthetic vacc
ine against rubella. (C) 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.