Definition of a minimal optimal cytotoxic T-cell epitope within the hepatitis B virus nucleocapsid protein
- 1 April 1993
- journal article
- Published by American Society for Microbiology in Journal of Virology
- Vol. 67 (4) , 2376-2380
- https://doi.org/10.1128/jvi.67.4.2376-2380.1993
Abstract
Residues 11 to 27 of the hepatitis B virus nucleocapsid antigen contain a cytotoxic T-cell epitope that is recognized by cytotoxic T cells from virtually all HLA-A2-positive patients with acute hepatitis B virus infection. Using panels of truncated and overlapping peptides, we now show that the optimal amino acid sequence recognized by cytotoxic T cells is a 10-mer (residues 18 to 27) containing the predicted peptide-binding motif for HLA-A2 and that this peptide can stimulate cytotoxic T cells able to recognize endogenously synthesized hepatitis B core antigen. Since patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection fail to mount an efficient cytotoxic T-cell response to it, this epitope might serve as the starting point for the design of synthetic peptide-based immunotherapeutic strategies to terminate persistent viral infection.Keywords
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