HLA class I-restricted responses to vaccinia recognize a broad array of proteins mainly involved in virulence and viral gene regulation

Abstract

We have analyzed by ex vivo ELISPOT the anti-vaccinia cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from humans vaccinated with Dryvax vaccine. More than 6,000 peptides from 258 putative vaccinia ORFs predicted to bind the common molecules of the HLA A1, A2, A3, A24, B7, and B44 supertypes were screened with peripheral blood mononuclear cells of 31 vaccinees. A total of 48 epitopes derived from 35 different vaccinia antigens were identified, some of which (B8R, D1R, D5R, C10L, C19L, C7L, F12, and O1L) were recognized by multiple donors and contain multiple epitopes recognized in the context of different HLA types. The antigens recognized tend to be >100 residues in length and are expressed predominantly in the early phases of infection, although some late antigens were also recognized. Viral genome regulation and virulence factor were recognized most frequently, whereas few structural proteins were immunogenic. Finally, most epitopes were highly conserved among vaccinia virus Western Reserve, variola major and modified vaccinia Ankara, supporting their potential use in vaccine and diagnostic applications.

Fig. 1.

Response of human volunteers before and after vaccination. (A) Example of the testing of A2 supertype peptide pools in a HLA-A^*0201 donor. The responses are expressed in net SFC for every 10⁶ cells. The criteria of positivity were stimulation index ≥ 1.4, SFC for every 10⁶ cells > 20, and P < 0.05 between pool and negative control. (B) Example of identification of specific vaccinia epitopes by deconvolution of positive pools in the same donor showed in A