title: Identification of helper T cell epitopes of dengue virus E-protein.
abstract: The T cell proliferative response to dengue 2 (Jamaica) E-glycoprotein (495 amino acids) was analyzed in vitro using either killed virus or E-protein fragments or synthetic peptides. Inactivated dengue virus stimulated dengue-specific lymph node (LN) CD4+T cell proliferation in BALB/c (H-2d), C3H (H-2k) and DBA/1 (H-2q) but not in C57BL/6 (H-2b) mice. Moreover, LN cells from dengue-virus primed BALB/c mice proliferated in vitro in response to three purified non-overlapping E-protein fragments expressed in E. coli as polypeptides fused to trpE (f22-205, f267-354, f366-424). To further determine T cell epitopes in the E-protein, synthetic peptides were selected using prediction algorithms for T cell epitopes. Highest proliferative responses were obtained after in vitro exposure of virus-primed LN cells to peptides p135-157, p270-298, p295-307 and p337-359. Peptide p59-78 was able to induce specific B and T cell responses in peptide-primed mice of H-2d, H-2q and H-2k haplotypes. Two peptides p59-78 corresponding to two dengue (Jamaica and Sri Lanka) isolates and differing only at position 71 cross-reacted at the B but not at the T cell level in H-2b mice. This analysis of murine T helper cell response to dengue E-protein may be of use in dengue subunit vaccine design.
authors.affiliation: Unité de Biologie des Régulations Immunitaires, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Leclerc
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dériaud
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Megret
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Briand
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Van Regenmortel
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Deubel
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D003716:Dengue Virus / Q000276:immunology*; D000939:Epitopes; D005260:Female; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000276:immunology; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000276:immunology; D006377:T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer / Q000276:immunology*; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000956:Antigens, Viral; C051821:E-glycoprotein, Dengue virus type 2; D000939:Epitopes; D010455:Peptides; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins