Identification of a murine CD4+ T-lymphocyte response site in hepatitis C virus core protein.
The T cell response to a recombinant HCV truncated core protein (cp1-10) was measured in a proliferation assay. Based on a 10-fold greater response to this truncated core protein than to its shorter form (cp1-8), a predominant epitope was mapped to the carboxyl quarter of this sequence. This epitope was further mapped to a synthetic peptide corresponding to amino acids 121-140 of the core protein. The peptide was antigenic for T cells of all three H-2 types tested, H-2 r, b and d, and the proliferating T cells were CD4+. Besides inducing specific proliferation in vitro, peptide aa121-140 can prime helper T cells in vivo. When boosted with core protein, mice primed with peptide produced 64-fold higher antibody titer than without priming in 1 week. The identification of a broadly immunogenic T cell helper epitope on core protein may be important for vaccine design against HCV.
Chen
Z
Z
Department of Transfusion Medicine, Warren G. Magnuson Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-1184, USA.
Berkower
I
I
Ching
W M
WM
Wang
R Y
RY
Alter
H J
HJ
Shih
J W
JW
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology*; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000276:immunology*; D007114:Immunization; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation / Q000187:drug effects; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000276:immunology; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology; D006377:T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology; D014758:Viral Core Proteins / Q000276:immunology* / Q000494:pharmacology
D010446:Peptide Fragments; D014758:Viral Core Proteins; C069130:nucleocapsid protein, Hepatitis C virus