The loss of immunodominant epitopes affects interferon-gamma production and lytic activity of the human influenza virus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte response in vitro.

In the present study, we examined the effect of the loss of the human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-B*3501-restricted nucleoprotein (NP)(418-426) epitope on interferon (IFN)-gamma-production and lytic activity of the human cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) response in vitro. Extensive amino acid variation at T cell receptor contact residues of the NP(418-426) epitope has led to repeated evasion from specific CTL. We generated recombinant influenza viruses with variants of the NP(418-426) epitope, which were used to stimulate peripheral blood mononuclear cells obtained from six HLA-B*3501-positive study subjects in order to expand virus-specific CTL. Loss of the NP(418-426) epitope resulted in a significant reduction of IFN-gamma-expressing CD8+ T cells, similar to that observed previously after the loss of the HLA-B*2705-restricted NP(383-391) epitope. In addition, the effect of the loss of the NP(418-426) epitope on the lytic activity of the virus-specific CTL response was assessed. Also this functional property of the virus-specific CTL response was affected significantly by the loss of this and the NP(383-391) epitope, as determined using the newly developed fluorescent antigen-transfected target cell (FATT)-CTL assay. These findings indicate that the loss of single immunodominant epitopes affects the functionality of the virus-specific CTL response significantly.