Frequency of CD8+ T Lymphocytes Specific for Lytic and Latent Antigens of Epstein–Barr Virus in Healthy Virus Carriers

Abstract We investigated CD8 + T cell frequencies of five different Epstein–Barr virus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte epitopes located within proteins of the replicative cycle and the latent state in healthy long-term virus carriers with IFN-γ enzyme-linked immunospot assay. Frequencies of the HLA-A3-restricted epitope RVRAYTYSK (RVR) whose minimal length was mapped in this study to amino acid position 148–156 of the immediate-early protein BRLF1 were compared with those of a further known HLA-A3-restricted epitope within EBNA3A, RLRAEAQVK (RLR). Determination of frequencies of CD8 + T lymphocytes directed against lytic antigen epitope RVR revealed that only one of eight donors recognized …