Fig. 1.

Viral evolution and CD8⁺ T cell recognition of the TW10 G9E variant in patient CH58. (A) Sequence analysis of the TW10 epitope in single genome amplified (SGA) viral RNA for patient CH58, illustrating the gradual decline of the wildtype (WT) TW10 epitope, coincident with the emergence of the G9E and T3N variants. Times are given in days from enrollment (E). G9E was detected as the dominant virus between days 45 and 85, and gradually declined thereafter. The T3N variant subsequently emerged as the dominant variant and was prevalent from day 154 onwards (data are from reference 11). (B) Interfeon-γ ELISPOT assays were used compare recognition of the founder viral TW10 epitope (TSTLQEQIGW) with that of the G9E and T3N variants in donor CH58. PBMCs were incubated overnight in the presence of varying amounts of each peptide (10⁻¹¹ to 10⁻⁵ M). Responses are reported as spot-forming cells (SFC) per million PBMCs.