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Publication Abstract from PubMed

Mutations within T cell epitopes represent a common mechanism of viral escape from the host protective immune response. The diverse T cell repertoire and the extensive human leukocyte antigen (HLA) polymorphism across populations is the evolutionary response to viral mutation. However, the molecular basis underpinning the interplay between HLA polymorphism, the T cell repertoire, and viral escape is unclear. Here we investigate the T cell response to a HLA-B*35:01- and HLA-B*35:08-restricted 407HPVGEADYFEY417 epitope from Epstein-Barr virus and naturally occurring variants at positions 4 and 5 thereof. Each viral variant differently impacted on the epitope's flexibility and conformation when bound to HLA-B*35:08 or HLA-B*35:01. We provide a molecular basis for understanding how the single residue polymorphism that discriminates between HLA-B*35:01/08 profoundly impacts on T cell receptor recognition. Surprisingly, one viral variant (P5-Glu to P5-Asp) effectively changed restriction preference from HLA-B*35:01 to HLA-B*35:08. Collectively, our study portrays the interplay between the T cell response, viral escape, and HLA polymorphism, whereby HLA polymorphism enables altered presentation of epitopes from different strains of Epstein-Barr virus.

A Molecular Basis for the Interplay between T Cells, Viral Mutants, and Human Leukocyte Antigen Micropolymorphism.,Liu YC, Chen Z, Neller MA, Miles JJ, Purcell AW, McCluskey J, Burrows SR, Rossjohn J, Gras S J Biol Chem. 2014 Jun 13;289(24):16688-16698. Epub 2014 Apr 23. PMID:24759101^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.