Escape from a dominant HLA-B*15-restricted CD8+ T cell response against hepatitis C virus requires compensatory mutations outside the epitope.

ABSTRACT: Antiviral CD8(+) T cells are a key component of the adaptive immune system against hepatitis C virus (HCV). For the development of immune therapies, it is essential to understand how CD8(+) T cells contribute to clearance of infection and why they fail so often. A mechanism for secondary failure is mutational escape of the virus. However, some substitutions in viral epitopes are associated with fitness costs and often require compensatory mutations. We hypothesized that compensatory mutations may point toward epitopes under particularly strong selection pressure that may be beneficial for vaccine design because of a higher genetic barrier to escape. We previously identified two HLA-B*15-restricted CD8(+) epitopes in NS5B (LLRHHNMVY(2450-2458) and SQRQKKVTF(2466-2474)), based on sequence an

SUBMITTER: Ruhl M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3255842 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature