Broad cross-reactive TCR repertoires recognizing dissimilar Epstein-Barr and influenza A virus epitopes

SC Clute, YN Naumov, LB Watkin, N Aslan… - The Journal of …, 2010 - journals.aai.org
SC Clute, YN Naumov, LB Watkin, N Aslan, JL Sullivan, DA Thorley-Lawson, K Luzuriaga…
The Journal of Immunology, 2010journals.aai.org
Memory T cells cross-reactive with epitopes encoded by related or even unrelated viruses
may alter the immune response and pathogenesis of infection by a process known as
heterologous immunity. Because a challenge virus epitope may react with only a subset of
the T cell repertoire in a cross-reactive epitope-specific memory pool, the vigorous cross-
reactive response may be narrowly focused, or oligoclonal. We show in this article, by
examining human T cell cross-reactivity between the HLA-A2–restricted influenza A virus …
Abstract
Memory T cells cross-reactive with epitopes encoded by related or even unrelated viruses may alter the immune response and pathogenesis of infection by a process known as heterologous immunity. Because a challenge virus epitope may react with only a subset of the T cell repertoire in a cross-reactive epitope-specific memory pool, the vigorous cross-reactive response may be narrowly focused, or oligoclonal. We show in this article, by examining human T cell cross-reactivity between the HLA-A2–restricted influenza A virus-encoded M1 58–66 epitope (GILGFVFTL) and the dissimilar Epstein-Barr virus-encoded BMLF1 280–288 epitope (GLCTLVAML), that, under some conditions, heterologous immunity can lead to a significant broadening, rather than a narrowing, of the TCR repertoire. We suggest that dissimilar cross-reactive epitopes might generate a broad, rather than a narrow, T cell repertoire if there is a lack of dominant high-affinity clones; this hypothesis is supported by computer simulation.
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