T-cell vaccination alters the course of murine herpesvirus 68 infection and the establishment of viral latency in mice.
Diseases caused by gammaherpesviruses such as Epstein-Barr virus are a major health concern, and there is significant interest in developing vaccines against this class of viral infections. However, the requirements for effective control of gammaherpesvirus infection are only poorly understood. The recent development of the murine herpesvirus MHV-68 model provides an experimental tool to dissect the immune response to gammaherpesvirus infections. In this study, we investigated the impact of priming T cells specific for class I- and class II-restricted epitopes on the acute phase of the infection and the subsequent establishment of latency and infectious mononucleosis. The data show that vaccination with either major histocompatibility complex class I- or class II-restricted T-cell epitopes derived from lytic cycle proteins significantly reduced lung viral titers during the acute infection. Moreover, the peak level of latently infected spleen cells was significantly reduced following vaccination with immunodominant CD8(+) T-cell epitopes. However, this vaccination approach did not prevent the long-term establishment of latency or the development of the infectious mononucleosis-like syndrome in infected mice. Thus, the virus is able to establish latency efficiently despite strong immunological control of the lytic infection.
Liu
L
L
Department of Immunology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee 38105, USA.
Usherwood
E J
EJ
Blackman
M A
MA
Woodland
D L
DL
D016475:3T3 Cells; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000276:immunology*; D016645:Aotidae; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D002460:Cell Line; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000276:immunology; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D018142:Gammaherpesvirinae / Q000276:immunology* / Q000502:physiology; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000276:immunology*; D014611:Vaccination; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic / Q000276:immunology*; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000276:immunology; D014765:Viral Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*; D017735:Virus Latency
D000956:Antigens, Viral; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins; D014765:Viral Vaccines; C089386:glycoprotein B, murine gammaherpesvirus 68