title: Characterizing monkeypox virus specific CD8+ T cell epitopes in rhesus macaques.
abstract: To characterize T cell epitopes in monkeypox virus (MPXV) infected rhesus macaques, we utilized IFNγ Elispot assay to screen 400 predicted peptides from 20MPXV proteins. Two peptides from the F8L protein, an analog of E9L protein in vaccinia, were found to elicit CD8+ T cell responses. Prediction and in vitro MHC binding analyses suggest that one is restricted by Mamu-A1(⁎)001 and another by Mamu-A1(⁎)002. The Mamu-A1(⁎)002 epitope is completely identical in all reported sequences for variola, vaccinia, cowpox and MPXV. The Mamu-A1(⁎)001 epitope is conserved in MPXV and vaccinia, and has one residue substitution (V6>I) in some cowpox sequences and all variola sequences. Given CD8+ T-cell epitopes from E9L were also identified in humans and mice, our data suggested that F8L/E9L may be a dominant pox viral protein for CD8+ T cell responses, and may be considered as a target when designing vaccines that target pox-specific T cell responses.
authors.affiliation: Integrated Research Facility, NIAID/NIH, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. Electronic address: songhai@mail.nih.gov.
authors.forename: Haifeng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sidney
authors.forename: Roger W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Wiseman
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Josleyn
authors.forename: Melanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: Joseph E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Blaney
authors.forename: Peter B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Jahrling
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sette
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D058501:Enzyme-Linked Immunospot Assay; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte / Q000276:immunology; D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I / Q000378:metabolism; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000378:metabolism; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008993:Monkeypox virus / Q000276:immunology; D011485:Protein Binding; D045908:Mpox, Monkeypox / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte; D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I; D007371:Interferon-gamma; C110764:Mamu-A 01 antigen; C089390:Mamu-A 02 antigen
keywords: Bioinformatics analysis; CD8+ T cells; Elispot; Monkeypox virus; Peptides; Rhesus; T cell epitopes