Immunodominance of CRV/C*0702-specific T cells.

<p>(A) Frequencies of CRV-specific T cells in 15 HLA-C*0702-positive blood donors, tested with the CRV nonameric peptide in ELISPOT assays. Black parts of bars indicate CRV-specific signal, grey parts indicate background (no peptide). (B) Specific T cells in PBMCs of HLA-C*0702 carriers were quantified by fluorescent staining with HLA-C*0702/CRV streptamer or HLA-B*0702/TPR pentamer and anti-CD8 antibody. Donors LT12 and SA03 are HCMV-seropositive, donor ASM is HCMV-seronegative. (C) Distribution of T-cell targets within the IE-1 sequence for 15 HLA-C*0702-positive donors, tested with overlapping peptides covering the entire IE-1 sequence of strain AD169. The 120 peptides were divided into 10 subpools, each comprising 12 successive 15-mer peptides with an overlap of 11 amino acids. The C-terminal amino acid position of each subpool is indicated. (D) Frequencies of CRV/C*0702-specific and VLE/A*0201-specific T cells in HLA-C*0702/A*0201-positive donors (n = 6). (E) Comparison of IE-1-specific T cell frequencies in C*0702-negative (n = 13) vs. C*0702-positive (n = 15) donors. (A, C–E) IFN-γ ELISPOT assays were performed with 200 000 peptide-loaded PBMCs in each well and with 2–4 replicates per condition.