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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2010 Feb 23.
Published in final edited form as: Curr Opin Immunol. 2009 Jun 11;21(3):314–320. doi: 10.1016/j.coi.2009.04.004

Table 3.

Proteins targeted by T and B cells

Epitope typea # of Epitopes recognizedb Target protein characteristicsc
B cell 9–15 ORFs (# of ORFs per subject not ascertained) Predominantly proteins with late or early/late promoters. Almost
exclusively membrane and core proteins
CD4+ T cell >130 ORFs (~0–20 ORFs per subject) Early, intermediate and late proteins, predominantly structural and
membrane proteins as well as DNA replication enzymes.
CD8+ T cell >190 ORFs epitope diversity within individuals is
not well studied. Most subjects recognized more
than 1 epitope.		 Predominantly early proteins. Multiple functional categories (virulence
factors, viral replication enzymes, transcription factors, structural proteins)
are targeted by CTL.

Immune epitopes from VACV.

a

Lymphocyte subset recognizing each group of epitopes.

b

Top number represents the total # of ORFs for which epitopes have been identified. The number(s) in parentheses indicate the extent or diversity of antigenic recognition on a per subject basis.

c

Details regarding the proteins targeted by each set of lymphocytes. Data collated from multiple reports identifying immune epitopes and from the Immune Epitope Database and Analysis Resource (http://www.iedb.org) [34,35,36,37•39,40•].