1. Personalized adoptive immunotherapy for patients with EBV-associated tumors and complications: Evaluation of novel naturally processed and presented EBV-derived T-cell epitopes.
- Author
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Bieling M, Tischer S, Kalinke U, Blasczyk R, Buus S, Maecker-Kolhoff B, and Eiz-Vesper B
- Abstract
Morbidity and mortality of immunocompromised patients are increased by primary infection with or reactivation of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), possibly triggering EBV
+ post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD). Adoptive transfer of EBV-specific cytotoxic T cells (EBV-CTLs) promises a non-toxic immunotherapy to effectively prevent or treat these complications. To improve immunotherapy and immunomonitoring this study aimed at identifying and evaluating naturally processed and presented HLA-A*03:01-restricted EBV-CTL epitopes as immunodominant targets. More than 15000 peptides were sequenced from EBV-immortalized B cells transduced with soluble HLA-A*03:01, sorted using different epitope prediction tools and eleven candidates were preselected. T2 and Flex-T peptide-binding and dissociation assays confirmed the stability of peptide-MHC complexes. Their immunogenicity and clinical relevance were evaluated by assessing the frequencies and functionality of EBV-CTLs in healthy donors ( n > 10) and EBV+ PTLD-patients ( n = 5) by multimer staining, Eli- and FluoroSpot assays. All eleven peptides elicited EBV-CTL responses in the donors. Their clinical applicability was determined by small-scale T-cell enrichment using Cytokine Secretion Assay and immunophenotyping. Mixtures of these peptides when added to the EBV Consensus pool revealed enhanced stimulation and enrichment efficacy. These EBV-specific epitopes broadening the repertoire of known targets will improve manufacturing of clinically applicable EBV-CTLs and monitoring of EBV-specific T-cell responses in patients., Competing Interests: CONFLICTS OF INTEREST The authors contributing to this manuscript do not have any conflicts of interest to disclose.- Published
- 2017
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