Functional and phenotypic characterization of peptide-vaccine-induced HCV-specific CD8+ T cells in healthy individuals and chronic hepatitis C patients.
Only very limited information on phenotype and function of vaccine-induced CD8+ T cells is available for humans. We investigated hepatitis C virus-specific CD8+ T cells after vaccination with the HCV peptide-vaccine IC41 which includes 5 MHC-class I and 3 MHC class-II-restricted epitopes. In healthy subjects, IC41 induced both HCV-specific central memory as well as effector CD8+ T cells which rapidly expanded upon antigen exposure in vitro. IFNgamma production was dependent on formulation of the synthetic peptides with the adjuvant poly-l-arginine. In chronic HCV patients, the frequency of HCV-specific CD8+ T cells increased after vaccination with a decline of CD45RA-positive effector memory cells in some but not all patients. Thus, this study suggests that HCV-specific memory cells can be induced by peptide vaccination and that a reversion of functional impaired phenotypes by therapeutic vaccination is possible in chronic HCV infection.
Hannover Medical School, Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology, Carl-Neuberg Str. 1, 30625 Hannover, Germany.
Verena
V
Schlaphoff
Christoph S
CS
Klade
Bernd
B
Jilma
Sandra B
SB
Jelovcan
Markus
M
Cornberg
Erich
E
Tauber
Michael P
MP
Manns
Heiner
H
Wedemeyer
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D006262:Health; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000276:immunology*; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007156:Immunologic Memory / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010641:Phenotype; D022223:Vaccines, Subunit / Q000276:immunology*; D014761:Viral Hepatitis Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*
D022223:Vaccines, Subunit; D014761:Viral Hepatitis Vaccines