Preliminary analysis of murine cytotoxic T cell responses to the proteins of the flavivirus Kunjin using vaccinia virus expression

The non-structural proteins of bluetongue virus are a dominant source of cytotoxic T cell peptide determinants

“…The non-structural proteins dominated the CTL response in both BALB/c and CBA/Ca mice, followed by the minor core, inner capsid protein VP3 and finally the inner capsid protein VP7 and the outer capsid proteins VP2 and VP5. Our findings are in accordance with results obtained from studies with flaviviruses (Hill et aI., 1992;Lobigs et al, 1994;Parrish et al, 1991;Rothman et al, 1993), murine cytomegalovirus (Del Val et al, 1991) and herpes simplex virus (Banks et al, 1991;Martin et al, 1988) which also found the non-structural proteins to be the dominant source of T cell determinants. The data provide further support for the concept that proteins with an intracellular location are a major source of T cell antigenic peptides (Townsend & Bodmer, 1989).…”

Broad cross-reactivity with marked fine specificity in the cytotoxic T cell response to flaviviruses

“…The construction of the recombinant VVs used in these experiments has been described in detail (Parrish et al, 1991). Briefly, cDNA fragments corresponding to the Kunjin virus genome were cloned into the VV shuttle vector pBCBO6* downstream of the early/late VV promoter p7.5, and inserted by recombination into the thymidine kinase (TK) gene of the WR strain of VV.…”

“…2. The recombinant vKV-1031, which expresses both membrane-associated structural proteins as well as the cytosolic protein C and the non-structural cytosolic polypeptides NS2a/2b (Parrish et al, 1991), was recog- …”

“…1), and demonstrated their use to identify immunogenic determinants for Kunjin virus-immune Tc cells from CBA/H mice (Parrish et al, 1991). We have now completed a comprehensive survey of immunodominant Tc cell determinants in Kunjin virus for mice of five H-2 haplotypes, and identified their restriction elements.…”

DNA vaccine coding for the full-length infectious Kunjin virus RNA protects mice against the New York strain of West Nile virus

“…This procedure reduced the effective dose in mice to 1 or 0.1 g, similar to the efficacy of the pKUN 1 DNA (injected into muscle without coelectrotransfer) observed in our study. It is also worth noting that a significant advantage of a vaccine expressing the full-length flavivirus genome over the prM-E subunit is that humoral responses to the NS1 protein and cell-mediated responses to NS3 epitopes may also contribute to more efficient viral clearance and protection (20,26,27).…”