Abstract
The efficient and sustained immune response of an antigen requires T cell epitopes, capable of inducing a long lasting T cell memory. To detect T cell epitopes of the measles virus fusion protein (MV-F), the proliferation of lymphocytes from late convalescent donors in response to overlapping pentadecapeptides covering the whole protein sequence was studied. Three major immunodominant regions (F51-70, F121-135 and F211-225) containing promiscuous peptides induce proliferation in peripheral blood lymphocytes in ~ 50% of the donors. Potential DR1-restricted epitopes were mapped using an MHC competition binding assay. Both the proliferation and the binding data identified a DR1-restricted T cell epitope (F51-65). Contact sites of the peptide HQSLVIKLMPNITLL with MHC were characterized using substitution analogs. Alanine substitutions at most positions did not interfere with F51-65 binding. These analogs were therefore useful for studying the residues which were recognized by the TCR of MV- and F51-induced T cells lines. In addition to amino acid residues of the core of peptide F51-65 both the C-terminal and the N-terminal amino acids were essential for T cell interaction. Since peptides presented by class II molecules vary in length, these findings suggest that residues of the ragged tail are important for T cell activation. It is speculated that in late convalescent donors the length of the flanking sequence of MHC II-restricted peptides may play a role in controlling the heterogeneity of MV-specific T cell clones recruited as T helper/memory cells.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 445-456 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | International Immunology |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1996 |
Keywords
- Antigen processing
- DR1
- Epitope
- Peptide