Table 4.
ELISpot IFN-γ activity of AMA1 15-mer peptides after depletion of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells
| Vol. | Pool | Peptide number* | Sequence | Control depletion sfc/m | CD4 depletion sfc/m (%) |
CD8 depletion sfc/m (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | Ap1 | 155 | 222 (+43%) | 55 (-65%) | ||
| 1 | LLSAFEFTYMINFGR | 85 | 58 (-32%) | 37 (-56%) | ||
| 5 | KEYEYPLHQEHTYQQ | 72 | 168 (+133%) | 17 (-76%) | ||
| 16 | TSNNEVVVKEEYDE | 103 | 252 (+148%) | 13 (-88%) | ||
| 002 | Ap1 | 187 | 148 (-21%) | 5 (-97%) | ||
| 3 | INEHREHPKEYEYPL | 185 | 152 (-18%) | 11 (-94%) | ||
| 005 | Ap1 | 267 | 173 (-35%) | 11 (-96%) | ||
| 3 | INEHREHPKEYEYPL | 233 | 145 (-37%) | 0 (-100%) | ||
| Ap4 | 273 | 117 (-57%) | 0 (-100%) | |||
| 7 | LMSPMTLDEMRHFYK | 204 | 137 (-32%) | 1 (-100%) | ||
| 012 | Ap10 | 48 | 37 (-23%) | 0 (-100%) | ||
| 16 | TSNNEVVVKEEYDE | 79 | 90 (+14%) | 0 (-100%) |
The percent change in ELISpot activity is shown after depletion of CD4+ or CD8+ T cells. Depletion of CD8+ T cells reduced ELISpot activity by 56-100%, whereas CD4+ T cell depletion reduced activity by no more than 57%. Although this suggested that the primary epitopes within these peptide pools and 15-mers are CD8+ T cell epitopes, some peptides may also contain CD4+ T cell epitopes. v001 and v012 showed an increase in ELISpot activity after CD4+ T cell depletion that may indicate the removal of regulatory T cells that had been suppressing CD8+ T cell activity.
* See last column of Table 3.