CD4+ T cell epitopes of FliC conserved between strains of Burkholderia: implications for vaccines against melioidosis and cepacia complex in cystic fibrosis.

Burkholderia pseudomallei is the causative agent of melioidosis characterized by pneumonia and fatal septicemia and prevalent in Southeast Asia. Related Burkholderia species are strong risk factors of mortality in cystic fibrosis (CF). The B. pseudomallei flagellar protein FliC is strongly seroreactive and vaccination protects challenged mice. We assessed B. pseudomallei FliC peptide binding affinity to multiple HLA class II alleles and then assessed CD4 T cell immunity in HLA class II transgenic mice and in seropositive individuals in Thailand. T cell hybridomas were generated to investigate cross-reactivity between B. pseudomallei and the related Burkholderia species associated with Cepacia Complex CF. B. pseudomallei FliC contained several peptide sequences with ability to bind multiple HLA class II alleles. Several peptides were shown to encompass strong CD4 T cell epitopes in B. pseudomallei-exposed individuals and in HLA transgenic mice. In particular, the p38 epitope is robustly recognized by CD4 T cells of seropositive donors across diverse HLA haplotypes. T cell hybridomas against an immunogenic B. pseudomallei FliC epitope also cross-reacted with orthologous FliC sequences from Burkholderia multivorans and Burkholderia cenocepacia, important pathogens in CF. Epitopes within FliC were accessible for processing and presentation from live or heat-killed bacteria, demonstrating that flagellin enters the HLA class II Ag presentation pathway during infection of macrophages with B. cenocepacia. Collectively, the data support the possibility of incorporating FliC T cell epitopes into vaccination programs targeting both at-risk individuals in B. pseudomallei endemic regions as well as CF patients

Immunogenicity of a Yersinia pestis Vaccine Antigen Monomerized by Circular Permutation

Caf1, a chaperone-usher protein from Yersinia pestis, is a major protective antigen in the development of subunit vaccines against plague. However, recombinant Caf1 forms polymers of indeterminate size. We report the conversion of Caf1 from a polymer to a monomer by circular permutation of the gene. Biophysical evaluation confirmed that the engineered Caf1 was a folded monomer. We compared the immunogenicity of the engineered monomer with polymeric Caf1 in antigen presentation assays to CD4 T-cell hybridomas in vitro, as well as in the induction of antibody responses and protection against subcutaneous challenge with Y. pestis in vivo. In C57BL/6 mice, for which the major H-2(b)-restricted immunodominant CD4 T-cell epitopes were intact in the engineered monomer, immunogenicity and protective efficacy were preserved, although antibody titers were decreased 10-fold. Disruption of an H-2(d)-restricted immunodominant CD4 T-cell epitope during circular permutation resulted in a compromised T-cell response, a low postvaccination antibody titer, and a lack of protection of BALB/c mice. The use of circular permutation in vaccine design has not been reported previously

CD4+ T Cells Targeting Dominant and Cryptic Epitopes from Bacillus anthracis Lethal Factor

Anthrax is an endemic infection in many countries, particularly in the developing world. The causative agent, Bacillus anthracis, mediates disease through the secretion of binary exotoxins. Until recently, research into adaptive immunity targeting this bacterial pathogen has largely focused on the humoral response to these toxins. There is, however, growing recognition that cellular immune responses involving IFNγ producing CD4+ T cells also contribute significantly to a protective memory response. An established concept in adaptive immunity to infection is that during infection of host cells, new microbial epitopes may be revealed, leading to immune recognition of so called ‘cryptic’ or ‘subdominant’ epitopes. We analyzed the response to both cryptic and immunodominant T cell epitopes derived from the toxin component lethal factor and presented by a range of HLA-DR alleles. Using IFNγ-ELISpot assays we characterized epitopes that elicited a response following immunization with synthetic peptide and the whole protein and tested their capacities to bind purified HLA-DR molecules in vitro. We found that DR1 transgenics demonstrated T cell responses to a greater number of domain III cryptic epitopes than other HLA-DR transgenics, and that this pattern was repeated with the immunodominant epitopes, as a greater proportion of these epitopes induced a T cell response when presented within the context of the whole protein. Immunodominant epitopes LF457-476 and LF467-487 were found to induce a T cell response to the peptide, as well as to the whole native LF protein in DR1 and DR15, but not in DR4 transgenics. The analysis of Domain I revealed the presence of several unique cryptic epitopes all of which showed a strong to moderate relative binding affinity to HLA-DR4 molecules. However, none of the cryptic epitopes from either domain III or I displayed notably high binding affinities across all HLA-DR alleles assayed. These responses were influenced by the specific HLA alleles presenting the peptide, and imply that construction of future epitope string vaccines which are immunogenic across a wide range of HLA alleles could benefit from a combination of both cryptic and immunodominant anthrax epitopes

Repertoire of HLA-DR1-Restricted CD4 T-Cell Responses to Capsular Caf1 Antigen of Yersinia pestis in Human Leukocyte Antigen Transgenic Mice▿

Yersinia pestis is the causative agent of plague, a rapidly fatal infectious disease that has not been eradicated worldwide. The capsular Caf1 protein of Y. pestis is a protective antigen under development as a recombinant vaccine. However, little is known about the specificity of human T-cell responses for Caf1. We characterized CD4 T-cell epitopes of Caf1 in “humanized” HLA-DR1 transgenic mice lacking endogenous major histocompatibility complex class II molecules. Mice were immunized with Caf1 or each of a complete set of overlapping synthetic peptides, and CD4 T-cell immunity was measured with respect to proliferative and gamma interferon T-cell responses and recognition by a panel of T-cell hybridomas, as well as direct determination of binding affinities of Caf1 peptides to purified HLA-DR molecules. Although a number of DR1-restricted epitopes were identified following Caf1 immunization, the response was biased toward a single immunodominant epitope near the C terminus of Caf1. In addition, potential promiscuous epitopes, including the immunodominant epitope, were identified by their ability to bind multiple common HLA alleles, with implications for the generation of multivalent vaccines against plague for use in humans

An LF epitope based vaccine which stimulates HLA restricted T cell immune responses may confer protection against <i>B. anthracis</i> challenge.

<p>Groups of HLA-DQ8 transgenic mice were immunised 3 times, on days 0, 14 and 35 by the intra-peritoneal route, with either an LF fusion construct comprising a tetanus toxin helper domain (aa 865–1120) and 12 confirmed HLA-restricted LF epitopes (n = 6, black diamonds), or a peptide pool of the LF epitopes expressed in the fusion protein (n = 7, black triangles), a control, sham immunised, group was also included in the experiment (n = 6, black squares). All groups were challenged with 10⁶ cfu <i>B. anthracis</i> STI by the intra-peritoneal route, on day 77, and monitored daily for survival (A). The impact of infection upon survival was described using Kaplan Meier estimation (A). Spleens were recovered from surviving mice at day 21, (LF fusion protein (n = 6, black diamonds), peptide pool (n = 7, black triangles) and sham immunized mice (n = 2, black squares)), and a mean bacterial count per spleen determined following culture of <i>B. anthracis</i> for 24 hours (B). No statistically significant difference was seen between the groups in terms of bacterial burden.</p

The immunodominant LF epitopes, identified in transgenic mouse strains, show relatively broad binding to common HLA-DR alleles.

<p>The relative binding affinity of peptides to HLA-DR molecules were expressed as a relative activity (ratio of the IC₅₀ of the peptide to the IC₅₀ of the reference peptide which binds strongly to the individual HLA II molecule). Peptides with a high relative binding affinity of <10 are indicated in bold. Means were calculated from at least three independent experiments.</p

Regions HLA-DR and DQ-presented anthrax LF epitopes mapped onto the LF protein structure reveals clustering of immunogenic epitopes.

<p>The structural domains of LF protein are indicated in Roman numerals (A). Immunodominant epitopes identified in this study from mice transgenic for DRB1*0101 (B), DRB1*0401 (C), and DQB1*0302 (D) are superimposed on the LF crystal structure (Protein Data Bank accession code 1J7N). Roman numerals indicate the structural domains. Ribbon diagrams were generated using the Accelrys discovery studio client 2.5 program.</p