Design and synthesis of HLA-A*02-restricted Hantaan virus multiple-antigenic peptide for CD8

backgroundHantaan virus (HTNV) can cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) in humans with severe morbidity and high mortality. Although inactivated HFRS vaccines are given annually for prevention in populations, China still has the highest number of HFRS cases and deaths worldwide. Consequently, vaccination for HFRS requires the development of novel, more effective vaccines. Epitope peptide vaccines have been developed rapidly in recent years and are considered a novel approach for the prevention of infection. Specifically, the multiple antigenic peptide (MAP) design with preferable immunogenicity can arouse a satisfactory immune response for vaccination. However, there are few reports on the design and evaluation of MAP for HTNV.

methodsThree HLA-A*02-restricted 9-mer cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes on HTNV glycoprotein and one HLA-A*02-restricted 9-mer CTL epitope on the HTNV nucleocapsid, which have been proven to be immunoprotective in our previous study, were selected for the design of HTNV MAP. A four-branched HTNV MAP was evaluated by the IFN-γ-secreting enzyme-linked immunospot assay and proliferation induction capacity of CD8

resultsThe macromolecular HTNV MAP was designed with a polylysine core and four radially branched single CTL epitope chains. Importantly, HTNV MAP could stimulate CD8

conclusionsThe designed HTNV MAP could induce CTL responses ex vivo and may be considered a candidate for the design and development of novel HTNV peptide vaccines.