Enhancement of the CD8 + T cell response to a subdominant epitope of respiratory syncytial virus by deletion of an immunodominant epitope

Abstract

Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) are critical for the control of respiratory syncytial virus infection (RSV) in humans and mice. Recently, we identified a new H-2K d-restricted subdominant epitope in the respiratory syncytial virus M2 protein. In this study, we investigated if modification of anchor residues at positions 2 and 9 in the dominant M2 82–90 epitope in the M2 protein would alter the CTL epitope dominance hierarchy following immunization with plasmid DNA encoding M2 proteins. We showed that immunogenicity of the subdominant epitope M2 127–135 was enhanced when the anchor residues of the dominant epitope were mutated, suggesting that the immunodominant epitope induces a suppression of response to the subdominant epitope.