PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Schmidt, Megan E.
AU  - Varga, Steven M.
TI  - Identification of Novel Respiratory Syncytial Virus CD4<sup>+</sup> and CD8<sup>+</sup> T Cell Epitopes in C57BL/6 Mice
AID  - 10.4049/immunohorizons.1800056
DP  - 2019 Jan 01
TA  - ImmunoHorizons
PG  - 1--12
VI  - 3
IP  - 1
4099  - http://www.immunohorizons.org/content/3/1/1.short
4100  - http://www.immunohorizons.org/content/3/1/1.full
AB  - Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most common cause of lower respiratory tract infection and hospitalization in infants. It is well established that both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells are critical for mediating viral clearance but also contribute to the induction of immunopathology following RSV infection. C57BL/6 mice are often used to study T cell responses following RSV infection given the wide variety of genetically modified animals available. To date, few RSV-derived CD4+ and CD8+ T cell epitopes have been identified in C57BL/6 mice. Using an overlapping peptide library spanning the entire RSV proteome, intracellular cytokine staining for IFN-γ was performed to identify novel CD4+ and CD8+ T cell epitopes in C57BL/6 mice. We identified two novel CD4+ T cell epitopes and three novel CD8+ T cell epitopes located within multiple RSV proteins. Additionally, we characterized the newly described T cell epitopes by determining their TCR Vβ expression profiles and MHC restriction. Overall, the novel RSV-derived CD4+ and CD8+ T cell epitopes identified in C57BL/6 mice will aid in future studies of RSV-specific T cell responses.