[Identification of T cell epitopes by reverse immunogenetics]

Abstract

Novel Strategy to identify CTL epitopes called "reverse immunogenetics" was introduced. CTL epitopes were identified as follows; (i) Identification of the motif of HLA class I binding peptides (ii) Selection of sequences matched to the motif of HLA class I binding peptides from HIV proteins and synthesis of peptides (iii) Identification of HLA class I binding peptides by the peptide binding assay (iv) Induction of CTL from PBL of HIV 1 infected individuals by HLA class I binding peptides. Multiple HIV-I epitopes presented by HLA-B35 were identified using this strategy.