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Ding Y, Zhou Z, Li X, Zhao C, Jin X, Liu X, Wu Y, Mei X, Li J, Qiu J, Shen C. Screening and Identification of HBV Epitopes Restricted by Multiple Prevalent HLA-A Allotypes. Front Immunol 2022; 13:847105. [PMID: 35464415 PMCID: PMC9021956 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.847105] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/01/2022] [Accepted: 03/15/2022] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Although host T cell immune responses to hepatitis B virus (HBV) have been demonstrated to have important influences on the outcome of HBV infection, the development of T cell epitope-based vaccine and T cell therapy and the clinical evaluation of specific T cell function are currently hampered markedly by the lack of validated HBV T cell epitopes covering broad patients. This study aimed to screen T cell epitopes spanning overall HBsAg, HBeAg, HBx and HBpol proteins and presenting by thirteen prevalent human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-A allotypes which gather a total gene frequency of around 95% in China and Northeast Asia populations. 187 epitopes were in silico predicted. Of which, 62 epitopes were then functionally validated as real-world HBV T cell epitopes by ex vivo IFN-γ ELISPOT assay and in vitro co-cultures using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from HBV infected patients. Furthermore, the HLA-A cross-restrictions of each epitope were identified by peptide competitive binding assay using transfected HMy2.CIR cell lines, and by HLA-A/peptide docking as well as molecular dynamic simulation. Finally, a peptide library containing 105 validated epitopes which cross-binding by 13 prevalent HLA-A allotypes were used in ELISPOT assay to enumerate HBV-specific T cells for 116 patients with HBV infection. The spot forming units (SFUs) was significantly correlated with serum HBsAg level as confirmed by multivariate linear regression analysis. This study functionally validated 62 T cell epitopes from HBV main proteins and elucidated their HLA-A restrictions and provided an alternative ELISPOT assay using validated epitope peptides rather than conventional overlapping peptides for the clinical evaluation of HBV-specific T cell responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yan Ding
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical School, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
| | - Zining Zhou
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical School, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
| | - Xingyu Li
- Key Laboratory of Developmental Genes and Human Disease, Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
| | - Chen Zhao
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical School, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
| | - Xiaoxiao Jin
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical School, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
| | - Xiaotao Liu
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical School, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
| | - Yandan Wu
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical School, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
| | - Xueyin Mei
- Key Laboratory of Developmental Genes and Human Disease, Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
| | - Jian Li
- Key Laboratory of Developmental Genes and Human Disease, Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
| | - Jie Qiu
- Division of Hepatitis, Nanjing Second Hospital, Nanjing Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China
| | - Chuanlai Shen
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical School, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
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A Systematic Review of T Cell Epitopes Defined from the Proteome of Hepatitis B Virus. Vaccines (Basel) 2022; 10:vaccines10020257. [PMID: 35214714 PMCID: PMC8878595 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines10020257] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2022] [Revised: 02/04/2022] [Accepted: 02/05/2022] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains a worldwide health problem and no eradicative therapy is currently available. Host T cell immune responses have crucial influences on the outcome of HBV infection, however the development of therapeutic vaccines, T cell therapies and the clinical evaluation of HBV-specific T cell responses are hampered markedly by the lack of validated T cell epitopes. This review presented a map of T cell epitopes functionally validated from HBV antigens during the past 33 years; the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) supertypes to present these epitopes, and the methods to screen and identify T cell epitopes. To the best of our knowledge, a total of 205 CD8+ T cell epitopes and 79 CD4+ T cell epitopes have been defined from HBV antigens by cellular functional experiments thus far, but most are restricted to several common HLA supertypes, such as HLA-A0201, A2402, B0702, DR04, and DR12 molecules. Therefore, the currently defined T cell epitope repertoire cannot cover the major populations with HLA diversity in an indicated geographic region. More researches are needed to dissect a more comprehensive map of T cell epitopes, which covers overall HBV proteome and global patients.
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Sun H, Lu Z, Xuan G, Liu N, Wang T, Liu Y, Lan M, Xu J, Feng Y, Xu S, Lu Y, Sun B, Zhang J, Zhang X, Sun Y, Yang S, Zhang Y, Zhang Y, Cheng L, Jiang D, Yang K. Integrative Analysis of HTNV Glycoprotein Derived MHC II Epitopes by In Silico Prediction and Experimental Validation. Front Cell Infect Microbiol 2021; 11:671694. [PMID: 34350130 PMCID: PMC8326763 DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2021.671694] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2021] [Accepted: 06/21/2021] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Hantaan virus (HTNV), the causative pathogen of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), is a negative RNA virus belonging to the Orthohantaviridae family. HTNV envelope glycoprotein (GP), encoded by the genomic medium segment, is immunogenic and is therefore a promising vaccine candidate. Major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I) epitopes derived from HTNV has been extensively studied, but little is known of MHC-II epitopes. In silico predictions based on four databases indicated that the full-length HTNV GP has 1121 15-mer epitopes, of which 289 had a high score for binding to the human and murine MHC-II superfamily. It found that epitope ILTVLKFIANIFHTS could potentially bind most MHC-II molecules covering human and murine haplotypes. Dominant epitopes were validated by enzyme-linked immunospot assay of splenocytes from immunized mice; 6 of 10 epitopes supported the predictions including TATYSIVGPANAKVP, TKTLVIGQCIYTITS, FSLLPGVAHSIAVEL, CETYKELKAHGVSCP, CGLYLDRLKPVGSAY, and NLGENPCKIGLQTSS. Conservation analysis of dominant epitopes revealed host–virus interactions without geographic stratification, thus meeting the requirements of candidate vaccines for large-population prophylaxis. These findings provide insight into hantavirus antigenicity and suggest that vaccines targeting MHC-II could provide immune protection in large population to complement symptomatic therapies for the treatment of HFRS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hao Sun
- Department of Immunology, Basic Medicine School, Air-Force Medical University (The Fourth Military Medical University), Xi'an, China
| | - Zhenhua Lu
- Department of Immunology, Basic Medicine School, Air-Force Medical University (The Fourth Military Medical University), Xi'an, China.,Department of Epidemiology, Public Health School, Air-Force Medical University (The Fourth Military Medical University), Xi'an, China
| | - Guoyun Xuan
- Department of Immunology, Basic Medicine School, Air-Force Medical University (The Fourth Military Medical University), Xi'an, China
| | - Ning Liu
- Department of Immunology, Basic Medicine School, Air-Force Medical University (The Fourth Military Medical University), Xi'an, China
| | - Tianhu Wang
- Department of Immunology, Basic Medicine School, Air-Force Medical University (The Fourth Military Medical University), Xi'an, China
| | - Yang Liu
- Department of Immunology, Basic Medicine School, Air-Force Medical University (The Fourth Military Medical University), Xi'an, China
| | - Mingfu Lan
- Department of Immunology, Basic Medicine School, Air-Force Medical University (The Fourth Military Medical University), Xi'an, China
| | - Jiahao Xu
- Department of Immunology, Basic Medicine School, Air-Force Medical University (The Fourth Military Medical University), Xi'an, China
| | - Yuancai Feng
- Department of Immunology, Basic Medicine School, Air-Force Medical University (The Fourth Military Medical University), Xi'an, China
| | - Shuang Xu
- Department of Immunology, Basic Medicine School, Air-Force Medical University (The Fourth Military Medical University), Xi'an, China
| | - Yuchen Lu
- Department of Immunology, Basic Medicine School, Air-Force Medical University (The Fourth Military Medical University), Xi'an, China
| | - Baozeng Sun
- Department of Immunology, Basic Medicine School, Air-Force Medical University (The Fourth Military Medical University), Xi'an, China
| | - Jinpeng Zhang
- Department of Immunology, Basic Medicine School, Air-Force Medical University (The Fourth Military Medical University), Xi'an, China.,Department of Surgery, Jinling Hospital, Nanjing, China
| | - Xiyang Zhang
- Department of Immunology, Basic Medicine School, Air-Force Medical University (The Fourth Military Medical University), Xi'an, China
| | - Yuanjie Sun
- Department of Immunology, Basic Medicine School, Air-Force Medical University (The Fourth Military Medical University), Xi'an, China
| | - Shuya Yang
- Department of Immunology, Basic Medicine School, Air-Force Medical University (The Fourth Military Medical University), Xi'an, China
| | - Yun Zhang
- Department of Immunology, Basic Medicine School, Air-Force Medical University (The Fourth Military Medical University), Xi'an, China
| | - Yusi Zhang
- Department of Immunology, Basic Medicine School, Air-Force Medical University (The Fourth Military Medical University), Xi'an, China
| | - Linfeng Cheng
- Department of Microbiology, Basic Medicine School, Air-Force Medical University (The Fourth Military Medical University), Xi'an, China
| | - Dongbo Jiang
- Department of Immunology, Basic Medicine School, Air-Force Medical University (The Fourth Military Medical University), Xi'an, China
| | - Kun Yang
- Department of Immunology, Basic Medicine School, Air-Force Medical University (The Fourth Military Medical University), Xi'an, China
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