title: In Vivo Validation of Predicted and Conserved T Cell Epitopes in a Swine Influenza Model.
abstract: Swine influenza is a highly contagious respiratory viral infection in pigs that is responsible for significant financial losses to pig farmers annually. Current measures to protect herds from infection include: inactivated whole-virus vaccines, subunit vaccines, and alpha replicon-based vaccines. As is true for influenza vaccines for humans, these strategies do not provide broad protection against the diverse strains of influenza A virus (IAV) currently circulating in U.S. swine. Improved approaches to developing swine influenza vaccines are needed. Here, we used immunoinformatics tools to identify class I and II T cell epitopes highly conserved in seven representative strains of IAV in U.S. swine and predicted to bind to Swine Leukocyte Antigen (SLA) alleles prevalent in commercial swine. Epitope-specific interferon-gamma (IFNγ) recall responses to pooled peptides and whole virus were detected in pigs immunized with multi-epitope plasmid DNA vaccines encoding strings of class I and II putative epitopes. In a retrospective analysis of the IFNγ responses to individual peptides compared to predictions specific to the SLA alleles of cohort pigs, we evaluated the predictive performance of PigMatrix and demonstrated its ability to distinguish non-immunogenic from immunogenic peptides and to identify promiscuous class II epitopes. Overall, this study confirms the capacity of PigMatrix to predict immunogenic T cell epitopes and demonstrate its potential for use in the design of epitope-driven vaccines for swine. Additional studies that match the SLA haplotype of animals with the study epitopes will be required to evaluate the degree of immune protection conferred by epitope-driven DNA vaccines in pigs.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Immunology and Informatics, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Rhode Island, Providence, RI, United States of America.
authors.forename: Andres H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Gutiérrez
authors.affiliation: Virus and Prion Diseases Research Unit, NADC, USDA ARS, Ames, IA, United States of America.
authors.forename: Crystal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Loving
authors.affiliation: Institute for Immunology and Informatics, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Rhode Island, Providence, RI, United States of America.|EpiVax Inc., Providence, RI, United States of America.
authors.forename: Leonard
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Moise
authors.affiliation: EpiVax Inc., Providence, RI, United States of America.
authors.forename: Frances E
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Terry
authors.affiliation: Virus and Prion Diseases Research Unit, NADC, USDA ARS, Ames, IA, United States of America.
authors.forename: Susan L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Brockmeier
authors.affiliation: Virus and Prion Diseases Research Unit, NADC, USDA ARS, Ames, IA, United States of America.
authors.forename: Holly R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Hughes
authors.affiliation: EpiVax Inc., Providence, RI, United States of America.
authors.forename: William D
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.affiliation: Institute for Immunology and Informatics, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Rhode Island, Providence, RI, United States of America.|EpiVax Inc., Providence, RI, United States of America.
authors.forename: Anne S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: De Groot
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D057134:Antibodies, Neutralizing / Q000276:immunology; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000276:immunology; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte / Q000276:immunology*; D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I; D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II / Q000276:immunology*; D009980:Influenza A virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D007252:Influenza Vaccines / Q000276:immunology; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000276:immunology*; D009976:Orthomyxoviridae Infections / Q000276:immunology* / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000821:virology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013552:Swine; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology*; D019444:Vaccines, DNA / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D057134:Antibodies, Neutralizing; D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte; D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I; D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II; D007252:Influenza Vaccines; D019444:Vaccines, DNA; C438668:swine leukocyte antigen; D007371:Interferon-gamma