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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1989 Mar;86(5):1629–1633. doi: 10.1073/pnas.86.5.1629

Vaccine T-cell epitope selection by a peptide competition assay.

J Kilgus 1, P Romagnoli 1, M Guttinger 1, D Stuber 1, L Adorini 1, F Sinigaglia 1
PMCID: PMC286752  PMID: 2466297

Abstract

The binding of several peptides derived from the Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite protein (CS protein) to the human major histocompatibility complex class II proteins HLA-DR5 and -DRw6 was examined in a competition assay. Fixed antigen-presenting cells (APCs) were incubated with various concentrations of each peptide and suboptimal concentrations of stimulator peptides. The binding of the CS peptides to DR5 or DRw6 proteins was then determined in a proliferation assay using two established DR5 or DRw6-restricted T-cell clones with specificity for the stimulator peptides as responder cells. One of five CS peptides, comprising together about 50% of the CS protein sequence, was found to compete with the binding of the stimulator peptides to DR5 and DRw6. The CS peptide CS-(378-398), binding to DR5 and DRw6, was then shown to be able to induce primary in vitro responses of T cells from donors with DR5 and DRw6 haplotypes. CS-(378-398)-induced T-cell clones responded not only to the homologous peptide but also to the native CS protein in the presence of appropriate APCs. The strategy we have applied is of considerable general interest for the engineering of vaccines against any pathogen, since it greatly facilitates the selection of appropriate T-cell epitopes to be incorporated in the vaccine.

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Selected References

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