0000000000339001
AUTHOR
Stefanie Ameres
CD8 T cell-evasive functions of human cytomegalovirus display pervasive MHC allele specificity, complementarity, and cooperativity.
Abstract Immunoevasive proteins (“evasins”) of human CMV (HCMV) modulate stability and localization of MHC class I (MHC I) molecules, and their supply of antigenic peptides. However, it is largely unknown to what extent these evasins interfere with recognition by virus-specific CD8 T cells. We analyzed the recognition of HCMV-infected cells by a panel of CD8 T cells restricted through one of nine different MHC I allotypes. We employed a set of HCMV mutants deleted for three or all four of the MHC I modulatory genes US2, US3, US6, and US11. We found that different HCMV evasins exhibited different allotype-specific patterns of interference with CD8 T cell recognition of infected cells. In con…
Suppression of CD8+ T cell recognition in the immediate-early phase of human cytomegalovirus infection.
Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) interferes with MHC class I-restricted antigen presentation and thereby reduces recognition by CD8+ T-cells. This interference is mediated primarily by endoplasmic reticulum-resident glycoproteins that are encoded in the US2–11 region of the viral genome. Such a suppression of recognition would be of particular importance immediately after infection, because several immunodominant viral antigens are already present in the cell in this phase. However, which of the evasion proteins gpUS2–11 interfere(s) with antigen presentation to CD8+ T-cells at this time of infection is not known. Here we address this question, using recombinant viruses (RV) that express only o…
Presentation of an Immunodominant Immediate-Early CD8+ T Cell Epitope Resists Human Cytomegalovirus Immunoevasion.
Control of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) depends on CD8+ T cell responses that are shaped by an individual's repertoire of MHC molecules. MHC class I presentation is modulated by a set of HCMV-encoded proteins. Here we show that HCMV immunoevasins differentially impair T cell recognition of epitopes from the same viral antigen, immediate-early 1 (IE-1), that are presented by different MHC class I allotypes. In the presence of immunoevasins, HLA-A- and HLA-B-restricted T cell clones were ineffective, but HLA-C*0702-restricted T cell clones recognized and killed infected cells. Resistance of HLA-C*0702 to viral immunoevasins US2 and US11 was mediated by the alpha3 domain and C-terminal region …