title: Effector T cells immune reactivity among patients with acute hepatitis E.
abstract: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a leading cause of acute viral hepatitis in several developing countries. Information on cellular immune responses during acute hepatitis E is limited. We therefore studied peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from patients with acute hepatitis E and healthy adult subjects who lacked anti-HEV antibodies for enumeration of various T-cell subsets using flow cytometry and to assess HEV-specific T effector cell responses using interferon-gamma ELISPOT assays. The patients showed increased numbers of CD8(+) cells and CD4(+) CD8(+) cells compared with healthy controls. In addition, the proportion of PBMCs that produced interferon-gamma in response to recombinant HEV open reading frame (ORF) 2 and ORF 3 proteins were found to be higher in patients than in healthy controls. Using pools of 15-mer overlapping peptides corresponding to these recombinant proteins, the immunodominant regions in these proteins for interferon-gamma-producing cells were mapped to regions corresponding to amino acids 181-249 and 301-489 of HEV ORF2 protein. These data provide evidence for the activation of effector T cells during acute hepatitis E. These responses may play a role in viral clearance from the host in patients with HEV infection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, India.
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Husain
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Aggarwal
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jameel
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Naik
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015704:CD4 Antigens / Q000032:analysis; D016827:CD8 Antigens / Q000032:analysis; D058501:Enzyme-Linked Immunospot Assay; D018604:Epitope Mapping; D000939:Epitopes / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D016751:Hepatitis E / Q000276:immunology*; D016752:Hepatitis E virus / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D015704:CD4 Antigens; D016827:CD8 Antigens; D000939:Epitopes; D014764:Viral Proteins; D007371:Interferon-gamma