Prediction and identification of mouse cytotoxic T lymphocyte epitopes in Ebola virus glycoproteins

Abstract

BackgroundEbola viruses (EBOVs) cause severe hemorrhagic fever with a high mortality rate. At present, there are no licensed vaccines or efficient therapies to combat EBOV infection. Previous studies have shown that both humoral and cellular immune responses are crucial for controlling Ebola infection. CD8+ T cells play an important role in mediating vaccine-induced protective immunity. The objective of this study was to identify H-2d-specific T cell epitopes in EBOV glycoproteins (GPs).ResultsComputer-assisted algorithms were used to predict H-2d-specific T cell epitopes in two species of EBOV (Sudan and Zaire) GP. The predicted peptides were synthesized and identified in BALB/c mice immunized with replication-deficient adenovirus vectors expressing the EBOV GP. Enzyme-linked immunospot assays and intracellular cytokine staining showed that the peptides RPHTPQFLF (Sudan EBOV), GPCAGDFAF and LYDRLASTV (Zaire EBOV) could stimulate splenoctyes in immunized mice to produce large amounts of interferon-gamma.ConclusionThree peptides within the GPs of two EBOV strains were identified as T cell epitopes. The identification of these epitopes should facilitate the evaluation of vaccines based on the Ebola virus glycoprotein in a BALB/c mouse model.

Fostering prevention and care delivery services capability on HIV pandemic and Ebola outbreak symbiosis in Africa

“…The HIV can be freely transmitted, unknowingly, over a long period of time in a society [33]. Both Ebola and HIV viruses attack T-lymphocytes and other cells responsible for the human host's immune system [33,34]. They infect these immune cells, replicate in them, disable or lyse and destroy these cells, thus compromising the immune system for opportunistic infections [33,34].…”

“…Both Ebola and HIV viruses attack T-lymphocytes and other cells responsible for the human host's immune system [33,34]. They infect these immune cells, replicate in them, disable or lyse and destroy these cells, thus compromising the immune system for opportunistic infections [33,34]. In addition, HIV virus can mutate rapidly and a patient who finally dies from HIVrelated infections may have multiple strains of the same virus [33].…”

“…Infections caused by Ebola hemorrhagic fever have killed 50%-70% of their victims, while 70% of people living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa [3]. Although EVD is highly lethal, more so than HIV [33,34], HIV is less transmissible than EVD. The number of HIV-infected individuals globally is far greater than the number of EVD-infected individuals [3,15].…”

Intramuscular Delivery of Adenovirus Serotype 5 Vector Expressing Humanized Protective Antigen Induces Rapid Protection against Anthrax That May Bypass Intranasally Originated Preexisting Adenovirus Immunity

“…Ad vectors can strongly stimulate both humoral and cellular immune responses. Here, the cellular immune response induced by Ad5-PAopt was examined by first predicting the H2 d -specific cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes (for BALB/c mice) in PA using computerassisted algorithms (18). The top-ranking peptides were selected and synthesized for further evaluation (Table 1) and of the four predicted peptides, only NA-9 specifically stimulated a gamma interferon (IFN-␥) response by flow cytometry analysis (Fig.…”

Multi Epitope Peptide Vaccine Prediction against Sudan Ebola Virus Using Immuno-Informatics Approaches

“…Among 65 conserved T cell epitopes predicted to interact with MHC Class I as shown in Table 3, epitope MHNQNALVC has succeeded to interact with only three MHC I alleles under the selected threshold. However, this epitope is very promising as it interacted with HLA-C*06:02 and HLA-C*07:01 that are very frequent among Sudanese population [73][74][75]. As well as FLYDRLAST that had successfully predicted to bind with good affinity to HLA-A*02:01 -the world wide predominant MHC I allele which is capable of eliciting strong CTL responses.…”