Journal
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE
Volume 199, Issue 10, Pages 1409-1420Publisher
ROCKEFELLER UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1084/jem.20040121
Keywords
Epstein-Barr virus; cytotoxic T lymphocytes; antigen presentation; EBNA1
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The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) nuclear antigen (EBNA)1 contains a glycine-alanine repeat (GAr) domain that appears to protect the antigen from proteasomal breakdown and, as measured in cytotoxicity assays, from major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I-restricted presentation to CD8(+) T cells. This led to the concept of EBNA1 as all immunologically silent protein that although unique in being expressed in all EBV malignancies, could not be exploited as a CD8 target. Here, using CD8(+) T cell clones to native EBNA1 epitopes upstream and downstream of the GAr domain and assaying recognition by interferon gamma release, we show that the EBNA1 naturally expressed in EBV-transformed lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) is in fact presented to CD8(+) T cells via a proteasome/peptide transporter-dependent pathway. Furthermore, LCL recognition by such CD8(+) T cells, although slightly lower than seen with paired lines expressing a GAr-deleted EBNA1 protein, leads to strong and specific inhibition of LCL outgrowth in vitro. Endogenously expressed EBNA1 is therefore accessible to the MHC class I pathway despite GAr-inediated stabilization of the mature protein. We infer that EBNA1-specific CD8(+) T cells do play a role in control of EBV infection in vivo and might be exploitable in the control of EBV+ malignancies.
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