The immune response to measles virus in mice: T-helper response to the nucleoprotein and mapping of the T-helper epitopes

Abstract

The T-helper response to the measles virus nucleoprotein (NP) has been studied in mice. The T-cell proliferative response was measured in lymphocytes from mice immunized with either a vaccinia measles-NP recombinant virus or a mouse neuro-adapted measles virus. A T-cell response was obtained with lymphocytes from H2d or H2k mice when stimulated with either measles virus or the NP expressed in bacteria. The response was CD4 + specific. The T-helper epitopes were mapped using truncated NP peptides. The major epitopes in both H2d and H2k mice were determined to be between amino acids 67–98. A further T-cell epitope (between amino acids 457–525) was identified when H2d mice were immunized with measles virus. Studies to quantitate the precursor cells for these epitopes confirmed that the region 67–98 of NP was immunodominant in both haplotypes immunized with the vaccinia-NP recombinant virus, whereas an additional major epitope was observed in the measles virus-infected H2d mice. The primary structure of the epitopes determined here are compared to predicted T-cell epitope motifs.