Development of a novel ZIKV vaccine comprised of immunodominant CD4+ and CD8+ T cell epitopes identified through comprehensive epitope mapping in Zika virus infected mice

Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved..

Zika virus (ZIKV) caused over two million human infections in more than 80 countries around 2015-2016. Current vaccines under development are mostly focused on inducing antibodies that despite capable of inhibiting the virus, may have the potential to trigger antibody dependent enhancement (ADE). T cell vaccines that do not induce antibodies targeting viral surface will unlikely cause ADE, but be capable of potentiating the effectiveness of an antibody-inducing vaccine. To develop such a protective T cell vaccine, we first examined the repertoire of antigen-specific T cells in immunocompetent mice that have been transiently infected by ZIKV. Through epitope mapping using 427 overlapping peptides spanning the entire length of ZIKV polyprotein, we discovered 27 immunodominant epitopes scattered throughout the virus on C, E, NS1-NS5 proteins. Among them, 8 were confirmed as CD4+ T cell epitopes, and 16 as CD8+ T cell epitopes, while 3 for both T cell subsets. From these 27 newly identified epitopes, the top 10 epitopes were selected to formulate three T cell vaccines comprised of either CD4+ T cell epitopes, or CD8+ T cell epitopes, or a mixture of both. Immunization with these T cell epitopes induced T cell-mediated cytotoxicity and cytokine production, and conferred varying degrees of protection against ZIKV challenge. Moreover, these new T cell vaccines also improved the protective efficacy of a neutralizing antibody-inducing recombinant E80 protein vaccine. Together, our results provided additional evidence in support of the protective role of ZIKV-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, and laid foundation for future development of T cell vaccines for ZIKV.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2021

Erschienen:

2021

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:39

Enthalten in:

Vaccine - 39(2021), 36 vom: 23. Aug., Seite 5173-5186

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Sun, Jin [VerfasserIn]
Zheng, Zhihang [VerfasserIn]
Li, Min [VerfasserIn]
Liu, Zhihua [VerfasserIn]
Su, Xiao [VerfasserIn]
Jin, Xia [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Antibodies, Neutralizing
Antibodies, Viral
CD4+ T cell
CD8+ T cell
Epitopes
Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte
Immunodominant Epitopes
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Vaccine
Vaccines, Synthetic
Zika virus

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 15.09.2021

Date Revised 15.09.2021

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.07.036

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM328979805