Previous studies of CD8(+) T cell immunodominance after primary virus infection of F(1) mice compared with their inbred parents have generally concluded that no dramatic changes occur. In this study, we revisit this issue using vaccinia virus (VACV), which has a large genome, a recently defined immunodominance hierarchy in mice, and is a candidate vector for vaccines. We found that immunogenici...

The immune system can recognize virtually any antigen, yet T cell responses against several pathogens, includingMycobacterium tuberculosis, are restricted to a limited number of immunodominant epitopes. The host factors that affect immunodominance are incompletely understood. Whether immunodominant epitopes elicit protective CD8+ T cell responses or instead act as decoys to subvert immunity and...

A detailed understanding of the molecular and cellular mechanisms that underlie epitope preferences in T cell priming is important for vaccines designed to elicit a broad T cell response. Protein vaccinations generally elicit CD4 T cell responses that are skewed toward a small fraction of epitopes, a phenomenon known as immunodominance. This characteristic of T cell responses, which limits the ...

Restriction of T cell responses to a few epitopes (immunodominance) is a central feature of immune responses. We analyzed the entire transcriptome of effector CD8 T cells specific for a dominant (H7(a)) and a cryptic (HY) mouse Ag and performed a longitudinal analysis of selected T cell differentiation markers. We found that Ag specificity had a relatively modest influence on the repertoire of ...

Tapasin edits the peptide repertoire presented to CD8(+) T cells by favoring loading of slow off-rate peptides on MHC I molecules. To investigate the role of tapasin on T cell immunodominance we used poxvirus viral vectors expressing a polytope of lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus epitopes with different off-rates. In tapasin-deficient mice, responses to subdominant fast off-rate peptides were...

The magnitude and complexity of Ag-specific CD8(+) T cell responses is determined by intrinsic properties of the immune system and extrinsic factors, such as vaccination. We evaluated mechanisms that regulate the CD8(+) T cell response to two distinct determinants derived from the same protein Ag, SV40 T Ag (T Ag), following immunization of C57BL/6 mice with T Ag-transformed cells. The results ...

The immune system can recognize virtually any antigen, yet T cell responses against several pathogens, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis, are restricted to a limited number of immunodominant epitopes. The host factors that affect immunodominance are incompletely understood. Whether immunodominant epitopes elicit protective CD8+ T cell responses or instead act as decoys to subvert immunity an...

Influenza A virus infection of mice has been used extensively as a model to investigate the mechanisms of antigen presentation to cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) and the phenomenon of immunodominance in antiviral CTL responses. The different virus-encoded epitopes that are recognized in H-2(b) and H-2(d) mice have been characterized and their relative immunodominance has been well-studied. In H-2...

BACKGROUND Very little is known about the immunodominance patterns of HIV-1-specific T cell responses during primary HIV-1 infection and the reasons for human lymphocyte antigen (HLA) modulation of disease progression. METHODS AND FINDINGS In a cohort of 104 individuals with primary HIV-1 infection, we demonstrate that a subset of CD8(+) T cell epitopes within HIV-1 are consistently targeted ...