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Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the deadliest infectious diseases worldwide, posing great social and economic burden to affected countries. Novel vaccine approaches are needed to increase protective immunity against the causative agent Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and to reduce the development of active TB disease in latently infected individuals. Donor-unrestricted T cell responses represent such novel potential vaccine targets. HLA-E-restricted T cell responses have been shown to play an important role in protection against TB and other infections, and recent studies have demonstrated that these cells can be primed in vitro. However, the identification of novel pathogen-derived HLA-E binding peptides presented by infected target cells has been limited by the lack of accurate prediction algorithms for HLA-E binding. In this study, we developed an improved HLA-E binding peptide prediction algorithm and implemented it to identify (to our knowledge) novel Mtb-derived peptides with capacity to induce CD8+ T cell activation and that were recognized by specific HLA-E-restricted T cells in Mycobacterium-exposed humans. Altogether, we present a novel algorithm for the identification of pathogen- or self-derived HLA-E-presented peptides., Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public., Pattern Recognition and Bioinformatics

The matrix protein of Ebola virus (EBOV) VP40 regulates viral budding, nucleocapsid recruitment, virus structure and stability, viral genome replication and transcription, and has an intrinsic ability to form virus-like particles. The elucidation of the regulation of VP40 functions is essential to identify mechanisms to inhibit viral replication and spread. Post-translational modifications of proteins with ubiquitin-like family members are common mechanisms for the regulation of host and virus multifunctional proteins. Thus far, no SUMOylation of VP40 has been described. Here we demonstrate that VP40 is modified by SUMO and that SUMO is included into the viral like particles (VLPs). We demonstrate that lysine residue 326 in VP40 is involved in SUMOylation, and by analyzing a mutant in this residue we show that SUMO conjugation regulates the stability of VP40 and the incorporation of SUMO into the VLPs. Our study indicates for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, that EBOV hijacks the cellular SUMOylation system in order to modify its own proteins. Modulation of the VP40-SUMO interaction may represent a novel target for the therapy of Ebola virus infection

Ebola virus disease (EVD) is a severe illness caused by infection with Ebola virus (EBOV) which causes sporadic outbreaks in African countries, the last one taking place in West Africa and affecting over 28000 people. Even though several decades have passed since the description of the first EVD cases, there are still many unanswered questions regarding the involvement of the human immune response in the pathophysiology of EVD. Research in this field is challenging because of the requirement of biosafety level 4 containment and the scarcity of human data. During the last EVD outbreak in West Africa, we had the opportunity to establish an immunology lab at Donka hospital in Conakry, Guinea where we collected and analysed leftover blood samples from patients diagnosed by the European Mobile Laboratory. With the use of benchtop multiparametric flow cytometry and subsequent analysis in the biosafety level 4 laboratory in Hamburg, we evaluated the kinetics and phenotype of antigen-presenting cells as well as T cells with the goal to identify immune biomarkers of disease outcome. Our approach was to utilize flow cytometry to characterize cell profiles in blood as well as immunogenetics, in particular analysis of the T-cell receptor clonotypes and HLA polymorphisms. Immune data was then correlated with clinical and epidemiological findings to try to detect potential predictors of outcome and targets for immunotherapy. Our observations highlight the importance of CD16 monocytes in the innate immune response to EBOV infection and in viral clearance. Additionally, we could identify a dysregulation of the adaptive immune response in fatal cases, characterised by the upregulation of the T cell inhibitory markers CTLA-4 and PD-1 and the inability to control viral replication. These results identify CD16 monocytes and the regulatory pathways of T cell responses as potential targets for post-exposure EVD immunotherapy. Moreover, our immunogenetics study evidenced the relevance of

Ebola virus disease (EVD) is a severe illness caused by infection with Ebola virus (EBOV) which causes sporadic outbreaks in African countries, the last one taking place in West Africa and affecting over 28000 people. Even though several decades have passed since the description of the first EVD cases, there are still many unanswered questions regarding the involvement of the human immune response in the pathophysiology of EVD. Research in this field is challenging because of the requirement of biosafety level 4 containment and the scarcity of human data. During the last EVD outbreak in West Africa, we had the opportunity to establish an immunology lab at Donka hospital in Conakry, Guinea where we collected and analysed leftover blood samples from patients diagnosed by the European Mobile Laboratory. With the use of benchtop multiparametric flow cytometry and subsequent analysis in the biosafety level 4 laboratory in Hamburg, we evaluated the kinetics and phenotype of antigen-presenting cells as well as T cells with the goal to identify immune biomarkers of disease outcome. Our approach was to utilize flow cytometry to characterize cell profiles in blood as well as immunogenetics, in particular analysis of the T-cell receptor clonotypes and HLA polymorphisms. Immune data was then correlated with clinical and epidemiological findings to try to detect potential predictors of outcome and targets for immunotherapy. Our observations highlight the importance of CD16 monocytes in the innate immune response to EBOV infection and in viral clearance. Additionally, we could identify a dysregulation of the adaptive immune response in fatal cases, characterised by the upregulation of the T cell inhibitory markers CTLA-4 and PD-1 and the inability to control viral replication. These results identify CD16 monocytes and the regulatory pathways of T cell responses as potential targets for post-exposure EVD immunotherapy. Moreover, our immunogenetics study evidenced the relevance of

Ebola virus disease (EVD) is a severe illness caused by infection with Ebola virus (EBOV) which causes sporadic outbreaks in African countries, the last one taking place in West Africa and affecting over 28000 people. Even though several decades have passed since the description of the first EVD cases, there are still many unanswered questions regarding the involvement of the human immune response in the pathophysiology of EVD. Research in this field is challenging because of the requirement of biosafety level 4 containment and the scarcity of human data. During the last EVD outbreak in West Africa, we had the opportunity to establish an immunology lab at Donka hospital in Conakry, Guinea where we collected and analysed leftover blood samples from patients diagnosed by the European Mobile Laboratory. With the use of benchtop multiparametric flow cytometry and subsequent analysis in the biosafety level 4 laboratory in Hamburg, we evaluated the kinetics and phenotype of antigen-presenting cells as well as T cells with the goal to identify immune biomarkers of disease outcome. Our approach was to utilize flow cytometry to characterize cell profiles in blood as well as immunogenetics, in particular analysis of the T-cell receptor clonotypes and HLA polymorphisms. Immune data was then correlated with clinical and epidemiological findings to try to detect potential predictors of outcome and targets for immunotherapy. Our observations highlight the importance of CD16 monocytes in the innate immune response to EBOV infection and in viral clearance. Additionally, we could identify a dysregulation of the adaptive immune response in fatal cases, characterised by the upregulation of the T cell inhibitory markers CTLA-4 and PD-1 and the inability to control viral replication. These results identify CD16 monocytes and the regulatory pathways of T cell responses as potential targets for post-exposure EVD immunotherapy. Moreover, our immunogenetics study evidenced the relevance of