Most influenza A virus-specific memory cytotoxic T lymphocytes react with antigenic epitopes associated with internal virus determinants.

This paper shows that most murine (C57BL/6) influenza A virus-specific memory cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) clones tested in limiting dilution did not react with the influenza A virus surface glycoproteins, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). This lysis of syngeneic target cells infected with the influenza A virus strains, Aichi (H3N2), PR8 (H1N1), or recombinant strain X31 (H3N2) indicates that most antigenic epitopes recognized are associated with internal virus determinants. X31 and PR8 share the internal, and X31 and Aichi the external, viral determinants. Extensive CTL cross-reactivity was observed in experiments with target cells infected with virus carrying internal determinants homologous with the priming virus. In contrast, when the internal viral determinants differed between the priming virus and the virus used to infect the target cells, and although HA and NA were homologous, we found almost complete CTL-specificity for the priming virus. Thus, the predominant reactivity of influenza A virus-specific CTL differs from that of anti-influenza A antibodies, which are primarily directed towards epitopes on the virus surface glycoproteins. This finding may be relevant for the role of influenza A virus-specific CTL in recurrent infections with different influenza A viruses.