FIG 3.

Minigene-gB₄₉₈ is more effective than full-length gB for priming CD8⁺ T cells when expressed from rWR and rMVA. (A) Diagram of the experimental plan. Mice were infected with rWR and rMVA viruses expressing versions of HSV gB₄₉₈ by i.d. injection and, after 7 days, epitope-specific CD8⁺ T cell responses were measured by in vitro culture with peptides and flow cytometry for CD8 and IFN-γ. (B) Data from the experiment described in panel A. Mice were immunized with rWRs (left) or rMVAs (right) expressing the form of gB₄₉₈ as shown in the key. The peptides are shown on the x axis. The graph on the right for each VACV strain shows the gB₄₉₈-specific response divided by the total VACV-specific response (i.e., the sum of P4 and B8₂₀) to account for any differences in infection across the viruses. Means and standard errors of data from six mice combined from two independent experiments are shown (*, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001).