Mapping of four immunodominant epitopes of dengue virus-specific human CD4(+) T cell clones and analysis of simian hemorrhagic fever virus RNAs

Since cross-reactive antibodies are thought to be involved in the pathology of dengue hemorrhagic fever-dengue shock syndrome in human, a multivalent T-cell vaccine has been proposed as an alternate antiviral strategy. To characterize the role of DEN specific T-cells in human DEN infections, two DEN3 specific CD4To further map the epitopes for these clones, recombinant VVs expressing truncated DEN3 NS3 fragments were constructed. The T-cell recognition regions for the four clones were mapped to regions of 20 to 40 amino acids. Overlapping synthetic peptides were then made in these recognition regions. The minimum recognition unit for the four clones ranged from 9 to 11 aa. These units were located on the DEN3 NS3 protein between aa 214 and 249 for JK15, between aa 351 and 361 for JK13 and JK5, and between aa 202 and 211 for JK44. Although JK13 and JK5 recognized the same epitope, these clones had different virus specificities and utilized different Additional studies on simian hemorrhagic fever virus (SHFV) were also performed. SHFV genome RNA and 6 subgenomic RNAs were detected by Northern hybridization in MA104 cytoplasmic extracts with 3...