Abstract
Twenty-seven nanopeptides derived from the matrix (M) protein of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) were screened for their ability to elicit a recall interferon-γ (IFN-γ) response from the splenocytes of BALB/c mice following DNA vaccination and a booster vaccination with recombinant vaccinia virus rWR-PRRSV-M. We identified two peptides (amino acid residues K93FITSRCRL and F57GYMTFVHF) as CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes. These peptides elicited significant numbers of IFN-γ secreting cells, compared with other M nonapeptides and one irrelevant nonapeptide. Bioinformatics analysis showed that the former is an H-2Kd-restricted CTL epitope, and the latter is an H-2Dd-restricted CTL epitope. Multiple amino acid sequence alignment among different PRRSV M sequences submitted to GenBank indicated that these two CTL epitopes are strongly conserved, and they should therefore be considered for further research on the mechanisms of cellular immune responses to PRRSV.
Highlights
Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is one of the most important swine viral pathogens, and has caused significant economic losses to the swine industry worldwide
The rational development of future PRRSV vaccines will necessitate a systematic understanding of the protective humoral and cellular immune responses that occur during PRRSV infection, and should aim to induce a broad immune responses that accommodates the plasticity of the major antigenic sites
We report the identification of cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes from the PRRSV (Ch-1a strain) M protein in a mouse model
Summary
Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is one of the most important swine viral pathogens, and has caused significant economic losses to the swine industry worldwide. Vaccines based on inactivated PRRSV virus have been ineffective at inducing protective immune responses. A systematic understanding of the protective humoral and cellular immune responses that occur during PRRSV infection, and should aim to induce a broad immune responses that accommodates the plasticity of the major antigenic sites. Identification of CTL epitopes is crucial in the design of synthetic vaccines, and a number of studies have successfully identified pathogen-derived T cell epitopes [8,9,10,11]. There is limited knowledge of the specific PRRSV-derived peptides targeted by T-cells. We screened peptides derived from the PRRSV M protein for their ability to induce interferon (IFN)-g in splenocytes harvested from BALB/ c mice following DNA vaccination and a booster vaccination with recombinant vaccinia virus expressing M protein. A multiple amino acid sequence alignment among different PRRSV M proteins indicates that these two peptides are strongly conserved across multiple PRRSV strains and should be considered for further research
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