T cell responses to synthetic peptides of herpes simplex virus type 1 glycoprotein D in naturally infected individuals

Abstract

To locate T cell determinants of glycoprotein D (gD) of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), proliferation assays of lymphocytes obtained from 10 healthy HSV-seropositive individuals were performed using 34 overlapping gD peptides as antigens. Despite large differences between individual responses to the peptides both in number of stimulating peptides and gD regions, three regions (1-54, 110-214, and 290-314) induced a response in 50% or more of the HSV-seropositives. T cells were less frequently stimulated by peptides of region 210-294. No correlation was found between serological data and proliferative responses to the peptides. The diversity in T cell response to the peptides suggests a lack of immunodominance, implying that a single peptide/region of gD, or a combination of peptides, will not be sufficient to serve as a basis for a future HSV-1 vaccine.

Gender-Dependent HLA-DR-Restricted Epitopes Identified from Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Glycoprotein D

“…Moreover, the present strategy accurately identified regions bearing all of the previously reported gD epitopes: gD (24,28,36), gD [241][242][243][244][245][246][247][248][249][250][251][252][253][254][255][256][257][258][259][260] (34,48,80), and gD 290-314 (24). Therefore, our approach to epitope identification, as well as testing epitope peptides for their T-cell antigenicity, immunogenicity, and protective efficacy, should be nearly universal, regardless of the protein studied.…”

Identification of Novel Immunodominant CD4+Th1-Type T-Cell Peptide Epitopes from Herpes Simplex Virus Glycoprotein D That Confer Protective Immunity

“…The latter epitopes were identified with other methods (e.g., overlapping peptides and truncated forms of gD protein) and other algorithms (e.g., prediction of amphipathic and hydrophilic parameters) (10,23,35,36,50,63,68,78). The present strategy accurately identified regions bearing all of the previously reported gD epitopes: gD (13,20,22,36); gD [241][242][243][244][245][246][247][248][249][250][251][252][253][254][255][256][257][258][259][260] (35,53,83), and gD (20). More importantly, the present approach identified several novel, not previously described, Th1 immunodominant CD4 ϩ T-cell epitopes that elicited protective immunity.…”

“…The gD epitopes and the immune mechanism that provide protective immunity are not yet fully understood. Knowledge of immune responses to gD and of their correlation with protection is limited primarily to the identification of B-cell epitopes (15,18,73,80), with only a limited number of T-cell epitopes having been reported to date (13,20,22,35,36,53,74,83). We hypothesized that characterization of the CD4 ϩ T-cell epitope repertoire of gD could be vital in the case of HSV infection.…”

Development of a Nucleoprotein-Based Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay Using a Synthetic Peptide Antigen for Detection of Avian Metapneumovirus Antibodies in Turkey Sera

“…The use of synthetic peptides as antigens in the development of serological assays has drawn much interest (8,10,11,20,27,28,32). This is often a result of (i) difficulty in propagating the infectious agent (i.e., low titers), (ii) lot-to-lot variations in infectious units per ml of culture fluid) with inconsistent lotto-lot variations, resulting in an inadequate source of antigen for serological assays (i.e., ELISA, Western blot assay).…”