Equine infectious anaemia virus proteins with epitopes most frequently recognized by cytotoxic T lymphocytes from infected horses

• Published in: Journal of general virology 2000-11, Vol.81 (11), p.2735-2739
• Main Authors: McGuire, T.C, Leib, S.R, Lonning, S.M, Zhang, W, Byrne, K.M, Mealey, R.H
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: amino acids; Animals; Antigens, Viral - immunology; AS2 protein; ASU protein; ATM protein; cytotoxic T-lymphocytes; Cytotoxicity, Immunologic; epitopes; Epitopes - immunology; Equine Infectious Anemia - immunology; Equine infectious anemia virus; Gag protein; horses; Horses - immunology; Horses - virology; Infectious Anemia Virus, Equine - immunology; Lentivirus; p15 protein; p26 protein; Pol protein; S2 protein; SU protein; T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic - immunology; TM protein; vaccines; viral proteins
• ISSN: 0022-1317; 1465-2099
• DOI: 10.1099/0022-1317-81-11-2735

Efficacious lentiviral vaccines designed to induce cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) in outbred populations with a diverse repertoire of MHC class I molecules should contain or express multiple viral proteins. To determine the equine infectious anaemia virus (EIAV) proteins with epitopes most frequently recognized by CTL from seven horses infected for 0.5 to 7 years, retroviral vector-transduced target cells expressing viral proteins were used in CTL assays. Gag p15 was recognized by CTL from 100% of these infected horses. p26 was recognized by CTL from 86%, SU and the middle third of Pol protein were each recognized by 43%, TM by 29%, and S2 by 14%. Based on these results, it is likely that a construct expressing the 359 amino acids constituting p15 and p26 would contain epitopes capable of stimulating CTL in most horses.