title: Noncanonical expression of a murine cytomegalovirus early protein CD8 T-cell epitope as an immediate early epitope based on transcription from an upstream gene.
abstract: Viral CD8 T-cell epitopes, represented by viral peptides bound to major histocompatibility complex class-I (MHC-I) glycoproteins, are often identified by "reverse immunology", a strategy not requiring biochemical and structural knowledge of the actual viral protein from which they are derived by antigen processing. Instead, bioinformatic algorithms predicting the probability of C-terminal cleavage in the proteasome, as well as binding affinity to the presenting MHC-I molecules, are applied to amino acid sequences deduced from predicted open reading frames (ORFs) based on the genomic sequence. If the protein corresponding to an antigenic ORF is known, it is usually inferred that the kinetic class of the protein also defines the phase in the viral replicative cycle during which the respective antigenic peptide is presented for recognition by CD8 T cells. We have previously identified a nonapeptide from the predicted ORFm164 of murine cytomegalovirus that is presented by the MHC-I allomorph H-2 Dd and that is immunodominant in BALB/c (H-2d haplotype) mice. Surprisingly, although the ORFm164 protein gp36.5 is expressed as an Early (E) phase protein, the m164 epitope is presented already during the Immediate Early (IE) phase, based on the expression of an upstream mRNA starting within ORFm167 and encompassing ORFm164.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Virology and Research Center for Immunology (FZI), University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Obere Zahlbacher Str. 67, Mainz D-55131, Germany. finka@uni-mainz.de.
authors.forename: Annette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fink
authors.affiliation: Institute for Virology and Research Center for Immunology (FZI), University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Obere Zahlbacher Str. 67, Mainz D-55131, Germany. julia_buettner@uni-mainz.de.
authors.forename: Julia K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Büttner
authors.affiliation: Institute for Virology and Research Center for Immunology (FZI), University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Obere Zahlbacher Str. 67, Mainz D-55131, Germany. thomdo00@uni-mainz.de.
authors.forename: Doris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: Institute for Virology and Research Center for Immunology (FZI), University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Obere Zahlbacher Str. 67, Mainz D-55131, Germany. R.Holtappels@uni-mainz.de.
authors.forename: Rafaela
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Holtappels
authors.affiliation: Institute for Virology and Research Center for Immunology (FZI), University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Obere Zahlbacher Str. 67, Mainz D-55131, Germany. matthias.reddehase@uni-mainz.de.
authors.forename: Matthias J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Reddehase
authors.affiliation: Institute for Virology and Research Center for Immunology (FZI), University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Obere Zahlbacher Str. 67, Mainz D-55131, Germany. lemmermann@uni-mainz.de.
authors.forename: Niels A W
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Lemmermann
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D015967:Gene Expression Regulation, Viral; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D018146:Muromegalovirus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte; D014764:Viral Proteins