In this report we describe a cytotoxic T-cell epitope in the Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen EBNA 6. This epitope is present on both A- and B-type transformants.

Recombinant immunotoxin HA22, composed of an anti- CD22 Fv fragment fused to PE38, a truncated portion of Pseudomonas Exotoxin A (PE), has been developed for targeted treatment of various B-cell malignancies. As a foreign, internalized macromolecule, PE38 often induces lysosomal degradation and neutralizing antibodies to limit the efficacy of treating B-cell malignancies. The region of PE38 con...

BACKGROUND One of the major challenges in the field of vaccine design is to predict conformational B-cell epitopes in an antigen. In the past, several methods have been developed for predicting conformational B-cell epitopes in an antigen from its tertiary structure. This is the first attempt in this area to predict conformational B-cell epitope in an antigen from its amino acid sequence. RES...

The inhibition of vaccination by maternal antibodies is a widely observed phenomenon in human and veterinary medicine. Maternal antibodies are known to suppress the B-cell response. This is similar to antibody feedback mechanism studies where passively transferred antibody inhibits the B-cell response against particulate antigens because of epitope masking. In the absence of experimental data a...

T cells expressing chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) recognizing CD19 epitopes have produced remarkable anti-tumor effects in patients with B-cell malignancies. However, cancer cells lacking recognized epitopes can emerge, leading to relapse and death. Thus, CAR T cells targeting different epitopes on different antigens could improve immunotherapy. The Lym-1 antibody targets a conformational ep...

Recombinant viral or virus-like particles offer new tools for vaccine development. This study investigated hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg) capsids and RNA phage Qbeta coats as carriers of a foreign epitope to induce antibody responses in mice. HBcAg capsids were shown to induce T cell-independent (TI) antibodies. We found that these particles behave as antigen-specific TI type 1 (TI-1) Ag comp...

Immunodominance hierarchies are a substantial, but poorly understood, characteristic of CD8(+) T cell-mediated immunity. Factors influencing the differential responses to the influenza A virus nucleoprotein (NP(366-374)) and acid polymerase (PA(224-233)) peptides presented by H2D(b) have been analyzed by disabling (N5--> Q substitution) these peptides in their native configuration, then express...

HLA-B27-restricted CTL responses to EBV are principally directed against two of the EBV nuclear Ags, EBNAs 3B and 3C. We have previously described a target epitope derived from EBNA 3C (residues 258-266, sequence RRIYDLIEL) that is immunodominant in the context of at least three different B27 subtypes, including B*2705 and B*2702. In this study, we show that this peptide binds well to B*2705 an...

Abstract Genetic engineering of T-cells using chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) has shown promise in the treatment relapsed/refractory B-cell leukemia. However, a significant percentage patients will eventually relapse, often due to emergence tumor cells expressing low levels target antigen. Previous research demonstrated that hinge domain CAR plays crucial role regulating cytotoxic capabilitie...

This paper focuses on the development of candidate DNA vaccine encoding antigenic epitopes of type O foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV). A series of plasmids encoding different combinations of B cell epitopes and a T cell epitope were constructed and characterized by inoculating BALB/c mice. The specific antibodies were only detectable in the mice inoculated with plasmids encoding the T cell e...