A novel approach to the identification of T-cell epitopes in Mycobacterium tuberculosis using human T-lymphocyte clones.

Current approaches to the analysis of antigens involved in the cellular immune response to mycobacterial infection rely on the initial identification and isolation of molecular components using monoclonal antibodies. In order to overcome the constraints of this approach, we have utilized a procedure involving T-cell recognition of antigens fractionated by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and added to proliferation assays after blotting onto nitrocellulose membranes. Analysis of human T-cell responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium bovis BCG by this procedure revealed distinctive patterns of reactivity to different molecular weight components indicative of the selective recognition of immunodominant and species-specific determinants. Human T-cell clones were subsequently derived, and SDS-PAGE immunoblotting was used to identify the antigen recognized by each clone. Three epitopes defined by individual T-cell clones were identified on separate polypeptides with molecular weights 16,000-18,000 (clone P53), 18,000-20,000 (clone P57) and 52,000-55,000 (clone P35). This study demonstrates the potential application of T-cell cloning in conjunction with SDS-PAGE immunoblotting for the dissection and analysis of the cellular immune response to pathogenic agents during human infection.