Evidence for Highly Variable, Region-Specific Patterns of T-Cell Epitope Mutations Accumulating in Mycobacterium tuberculosis Strains.

ABSTRACT: Vaccines that confer protection through induction of adaptive T-cell immunity rely on understanding T-cell epitope (TCE) evolution induced by immune escape. This is poorly understood in tuberculosis (TB), an ancient, chronic disease, where CD4 T-cell immunity is of recognized importance. We probed 905 functionally validated, curated human CD4 T cell epitopes in 79 Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) whole genomes from India. This screen resulted in identifying 64 mutated epitopes in these strains initially using a computational pipeline and subsequently verified by single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis. SNP based phylogeny revealed the 79 Mtb strains to cluster to East African Indian (EAI), Central Asian Strain (CAS), and Beijing (BEI) lineages. Eighty-nine percent of the mutat

SUBMITTER: Ramaiah A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6381025 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature