Identification of H1N1 influenza virus-derived T-cell epitopes and the contribution in the cross-reactivities to avian influenza virus

Abstract

Influenza viruses, such as 2009 pandemic A(H1N1) influenza virus (2009 pH1N1) and avian influenza A (H7N9) virus (H7N9), which spread across the species, pose a great threat to human health and cause socioeconomic losses. Since 2009, circulation of 2009 pH1N1 has become a seasonal influenza virus. The sustaining epidemics have resulted in certain T-cell immune level among healthy populations. T-cell epitopes are mainly derived from conserved internal proteins of influenza virus compared with B-cell epitopes, influenza virus-specific cross-reactive CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells broadly exist among the population, providing protection from subsequent infections by heterotypic viruses. Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) specific for influenza A viruses mostly target internal, nonglycosylated proteins including M1, which are enriched with immunodominant CTL epitopes and markedly conserved among diverse strains compared to HA and NA. In comparison to M1 protein of 2009 pH1N1, the H7N9 M1 has 4 segments with clustering substitutions. In this study, we defined the cross-reactivity immunity between 2009 pH1N1 and H7N9 and identified four T-cell epitopes: H1-M42 (LMEWLKTR), H1-M102 (KLKREITFHGAK), H1-M202s (AMEVANQTR) and H1-M244 (MGVQMQRFK) in the mutant segments in 2009 pH1N1. T-cell responses were investigated using freshly isolated PBMCs from individuals ( n = 16) through IFN-γ ELISPOT with these peptides derived from influenza virus M1 protein that are not conserved between 2009 pH1N1 and H7N9. We investigated the baseline of pre-existing immunity targeting M1 mutant segments of avian H7N9 influenza virus compared to 2009 pH1N1 among a healthy population. There was a certain level of T-cell immunity to H7N9 in the healthy population, but still weaker than that to 2009 pH1N1. Peptides derived from H7N9 which had mutations induced significant lower T-cell responses. The limited pre-existing T-cell immunity against H7N9 in healthy populations was partially contributed by H7N9 amino acid mutations in novel identified epitopes. Furthermore, we found that H1-M102 and H1-M244 could bind with HLA-A*1101 stably after renaturation in vitro , while the binding of H1-M42 and H1-M202s with HLA-A*3303 were relatively weak. Combined refolding and functional studies based on T-cell epitopes derived from influenza virus illustrated that minor mutation of an epitope can lead to a profound effect on the antigenicity of the peptide, which may also influence both HLA binding and TCR docking. Our study on T-cell immunity against influenza viruses provides an important reference for understanding the preexisting immune responses to avian influenza virus, and benefits the development of universal influenza vaccine. At the same time, considering that a few amino acid mutations will change the immunogenicity of the peptide completely, the study of antigenic variability of influenza virus major T cell immunogens such as M1, NP and PB1 are crucial in the development of universal vaccines.