| Autor: |
Dannielle Wellington, Zixi Yin, Zhanru Yu, Raphael Heilig, Simon Davis, Roman Fischer, Suet Ling Felce, Philip Hublitz, Ryan Beveridge, Danning Dong, Guihai Liu, Xuan Yao, Yanchun Peng, Benedikt M Kessler, Tao Dong |
| Rok vydání: |
2022 |
| Popis: |
Viral CD8+ epitopes are generated by the cellular turnover of viral proteins, predominantly by the proteasome. Mutations located within viral epitopes can result in escape from memory T cells but the contribution of mutations in flanking regions of epitopes in SARS-CoV-2 has not been investigated. Focusing on two of the most dominant SARS-CoV-2 nucleoprotein CD8+ epitopes, we identified mutations in epitope flanking regions and investigated the contribution of these mutations to antigen processing and T cell activation using SARS-CoV-2 nucleoprotein transduced B cell lines and in vitro proteasomal processing of peptides. We found that decreased NP9-17-B*27:05 CD8+ T cell responses to the NP-Q7K mutation correlated with lower epitope surface expression, likely due to a lack of efficient epitope production by the proteasome, suggesting immune escape caused by this mutation. In contrast, NP-P6L and NP-D103N/Y mutations flanking the NP9-17-B*27:05 and NP105-113-B*07:02 epitopes, respectively, increased CD8+ T cell responses associated with enhanced epitope production by the proteasome. Our results provide evidence that SARS-CoV-2 mutations outside the epitope could have a significant impact on antigen processing and presentation, thereby contributing to escape from immunodominant T cell responses. Alternatively, mutations could enhance antigen processing and efficacy of T cell recognition, opening new avenues for improving future vaccine designs.One Sentence SummaryNatural mutations in the flanking regions of known immunodominant SARS-CoV-2 nucleoprotein epitopes can decrease CD8+ T cell responses leading to partial escape. |
| Databáze: |
OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
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