Epitope competition weakens specific T cell response to subdominant epitopes

VernacularTitle:表位竞争可削弱针对非优势表位的T细胞应答
Author: Xiaonan REN ; Yanqin REN ; Jing WANG ; Zhidong HU ; Yanmin WAN ; Jianqing XU
Publication Type:Journal Article
Keywords: Single epitope DNA vaccine; Epitope competition; T cell response
From: Chinese Journal of Microbiology and Immunology 2013;(6):440-444
CountryChina
Language:Chinese
Abstract: Objective To elucidate the influences of epitope competition on the frequency and average intensity of specific T cell response.Methods C57BL/6 mice were immunized with either single epitope DNA vaccines (pSV-gag92 or pSV-env203) or fusion gene DNA vaccine (pSV-gag/env).Gag92and Env203 epitope-specific CD8 T cell responses were analyzed by intracellular cytokine staining assay.Results Gag92-specific IFN-γ+CD8 T cells that were induced by pSV-gag92 accounted for 0.415 00％ ±0.045 88％ of the total CD8 T cells,which was much more than that induced by pSV-gag/env of 0.058 67％ + 0.019 64％.Moreover,the mean fluorescence intensity of Gag92-specific TNF-α-IFN-γ+CD8 T cells (296.70+14.08) elicited by pSV-gag/env was significantly lower than that of Env203-specific TNF-α-IFN-γ+CD8 T cells (818.00+49.34).Conclusion Epitope competition could significantly decrease both the frequency and the average intensity of specific T cell response to subdominant epitopes.