Extensive HLA class I allele promiscuity among viral CTL epitopes

作者：Nicole Frahm, Karina Yusim, Todd J. Suscovich, Sharon Adams, John Sidney, Peter Hraber, Hannah S. Hewitt, Caitlyn Linde, Daniel G. Kavanagh, Tonia Woodberry, Leah M. Henry, Kellie Faircloth, Jennifer Listgarten, Carl Kadie, Nebojša Jojić, Kaori Sango, Nancy V. Brown, Eunice Pae, M. Tauheed Zaman, Florian Bihl, Ashok Khatri, Mina John, S. Mallal, Francesco M. Marincola, Bruce D. Walker, Alessandro Sette, David Heckerman, Bette Korber, Christian Brander · 发表于：European Journal of Immunology · 年份：2007 · DOI：10.1002/eji.200737365 · 被引用次数：125 · 研究领域：vaccines and immunoinformatics approaches、T-cell and B-cell Immunology、Immunotherapy and Immune Responses

Promiscuous binding of T helper epitopes to MHC class II molecules has been well established, but few examples of promiscuous class I-restricted epitopes exist. To address the extent of promiscuity of HLA class I peptides, responses to 242 well-defined viral epitopes were tested in 100 subjects regardless of the individuals' HLA type. Surprisingly, half of all detected responses were seen in the absence of the originally reported restricting HLA class I allele, and only 3% of epitopes were recognized exclusively in the presence of their original allele. Functional assays confirmed the frequent recognition of HLA class I-restricted T cell epitopes on several alternative alleles across HLA class I supertypes and encoded on different class I loci. These data have significant implications for the understanding of MHC class I-restricted antigen presentation and vaccine development.