Search results for " Epitope"
showing 10 items of 50 documents
Human molecular chaperones share with SARS-CoV-2 antigenic epitopes potentially capable of eliciting autoimmunity against endothelial cells: possible…
2020
Severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the cause of COVID-19 disease, has the potential to elicit autoimmunity because mimicry of human molecular chaperones by viral proteins. We compared viral proteins with human molecular chaperones, many of which are heat shock proteins, to determine if they share amino acid-sequence segments with immunogenic-antigenic potential, which can elicit cross-reactive antibodies and effector immune cells with the capacity to damage-destroy human cells by a mechanism of autoimmunity. We identified the chaperones that can putatively participate in molecular mimicry phenomena after SARS-CoV-2 infection, focusing on those for which endotheli…
Peptide Processing Is Critical for T-Cell Memory Inflation and May Be Optimized to Improve Immune Protection by CMV-Based Vaccine Vectors.
2016
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) elicits long-term T-cell immunity of unparalleled strength, which has allowed the development of highly protective CMV-based vaccine vectors. Counterintuitively, experimental vaccines encoding a single MHC-I restricted epitope offered better immune protection than those expressing entire proteins, including the same epitope. To clarify this conundrum, we generated recombinant murine CMVs (MCMVs) encoding well-characterized MHC-I epitopes at different positions within viral genes and observed strong immune responses and protection against viruses and tumor growth when the epitopes were expressed at the protein C-terminus. We used the M45-encoded conventional epitope HGI…
Characterization of a Novel Conformational GII.4 Norovirus Epitope: Implications for Norovirus-Host Interactions
2016
ABSTRACT Human noroviruses (NoVs) are the main etiological agents of acute gastroenteritis worldwide. While NoVs are highly diverse (more than 30 genotypes have been detected in humans), during the last 40 years most outbreaks and epidemics have been caused by GII.4 genotype strains, raising questions about their persistence in the population. Among other potential explanations, immune evasion is considered to be a main driver of their success. In order to study antibody recognition and evasion in detail, we analyzed a conformational epitope recognized by a monoclonal antibody (3C3G3) by phage display, site-directed mutagenesis, and surface plasmon resonance. Our results show that the predi…
Mortality in COVID-19 disease patients: Correlating Association of Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) with severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 (S…
2020
Highlights • In addition to ethnicity, socio-economic factors, prior vaccinations and exposure to other coronaviruses, other factors need to be considered to explain geographical and regional variations in susceptibility, severity of clinical expression of COVID-19 disease and outcomes. • Differences in peptide binding of SARS-CoV-2 variants to MHC class II, but not to MHC class I alleles frequent in individuals with African, Asian or Caucasian descent could be identified. • Single mutations in the wildtype of SARS-CoV-2, the so called B strain or L strain impact on MHC presentation • Most likely there is selective pressure from MHC class II alleles in regard to binding of the ORF8 (L84S) v…
Phase Ib study of poly-epitope peptide vaccination to thymidylate synthase (TSPP) and GOLFIG chemo-immunotherapy for treatment of metastatic colorect…
2015
ABSTRACT: Thymidylate synthase (TS) is a tumor-associated enzyme critical for DNA replication and main 5′-fluorouracil (5′-FU) target. TSPP/VAC1 is a multi-arm trial phase-Ib trial program aimed to investigate the toxicity and biomodulatory activity of a poly-epitope-peptide vaccine to TS (TSPP) in cancer patients (pts). Here, we present the results of the TSPP/VAC1/arm C trial aimed to evaluate TSPP in combination with chemo-immunotherapy in pretreated metastatic colo-rectal cancer (mCRC) pts. Twenty-nine pts, 14 males and 15 females, received poly-chemotherapy with gemcitabine [GEM; 1,000 mg/sqm, day-1], oxaliplatin [OX; 80 mg/sqm, day-2], levofolinate [100 mg/sqm, days 1–2], bolus/infusi…
Personalized vaccines for cancer immunotherapy
2018
Cancer is characterized by an accumulation of genetic alterations. Somatic mutations can generate cancer-specific neoepitopes that are recognized by autologous T cells as foreign and constitute ideal cancer vaccine targets. Every tumor has its own unique composition of mutations, with only a small fraction shared between patients. Technological advances in genomics, data science, and cancer immunotherapy now enable the rapid mapping of the mutations within a genome, rational selection of vaccine targets, and on-demand production of a therapy customized to a patient’s individual tumor. First-in-human clinical trials of personalized cancer vaccines have shown the feasibility, safety, and immu…
Subdominant CD8 T-Cell Epitopes Account for Protection against Cytomegalovirus Independent of Immunodomination▿ †
2008
ABSTRACTCytomegalovirus (CMV) infection continues to be a complication in recipients of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Preexisting donor immunity is recognized as a favorable prognostic factor for the reconstitution of protective antiviral immunity mediated primarily by CD8 T cells. Furthermore, adoptive transfer of CMV-specific memory CD8 T (CD8-TM) cells is a therapeutic option for preventing CMV disease in HSCT recipients. Given the different CMV infection histories of donor and recipient, a problem may arise from an antigenic mismatch between the CMV variant that has primed donor immunity and the CMV variant acquired by the recipient. Here, we have used the BALB/c mouse…
Highly protective in vivo function of cytomegalovirus IE1 epitope-specific memory CD8 T cells purified by T-cell receptor-based cell sorting.
2005
ABSTRACTReconstitution of antiviral CD8 T cells is essential for controlling cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection after bone marrow transplantation. Accordingly, polyclonal CD8 T cells derived from BALB/c mice infected with murine CMV protect immunocompromised adoptive transfer recipients against CMV disease. The protective population comprises CD8 T cells with T-cell receptors (TCRs) specific for defined and for as-yet-unknown viral epitopes, as well as a majority of nonprotective cells with unrelated specificities. Defined epitopes include IE1/m123 and m164, which are immunodominant in terms of the magnitude of the CD8 T-cell response, and a panel of subordinate epitopes (m04, m18, M45, M83, a…
Genome-based in silico identification of new Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigens activating polyfunctional CD8+ T cells in human tuberculosis.
2011
Although CD8(+) T cells help control Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, their M. tuberculosis Ag repertoire, in vivo frequency, and functionality in human tuberculosis (TB) remains largely undefined. We have performed genome-based bioinformatics searches to identify new M. tuberculosis epitopes presented by major HLA class I supertypes A2, A3, and B7 (covering 80% of the human population). A total of 432 M. tuberculosis peptides predicted to bind to HLA-A*0201, HLA-A*0301, and HLA-B*0702 (representing the above supertypes) were synthesized and HLA-binding affinities determined. Peptide-specific CD8(+) T cell proliferation assays (CFSE dilution) in 41 M. tuberculosis-responsive donors ide…
Identification of NY-ESO-1 epitopes presented by human histocompatibility antigen (HLA)-DRB4*0101-0103 and recognized by CD4(+) T lymphocytes of pati…
2000
NY-ESO-1 is a member of the cancer-testis family of tumor antigens that elicits strong humoral and cellular immune responses in patients with NY-ESO-1–expressing cancers. Since CD4+ T lymphocytes play a critical role in generating antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte and antibody responses, we searched for NY-ESO-1 epitopes presented by histocompatibility leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II molecules. Autologous monocyte-derived dendritic cells of cancer patients were incubated with recombinant NY-ESO-1 protein and used in enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assays to detect NY-ESO-1–specific CD4+ T lymphocyte responses. To identify possible epitopes presented by distinct HLA class II allele…