Elsevier

Vaccine

Volume 39, Issue 15, 8 April 2021, Pages 2110-2116
Vaccine

Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 specific CD4(+) and CD8 (+) T cell responses using MHC class I and II tetramers

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.03.008Get rights and content

Highlights

  • QuickSwitch platforms validate binding of SARS-CoV-2 peptides to MHC Class I and II.

  • Semi-quantitative assessment of SARS-CoV-2 peptides binding affinity to MHC.

  • Selection of potentially immunodominant SARS-CoV-2 peptides.

  • T cell staining with SARS-CoV-2 peptide exchanged QuickSwitch MHC tetramers.

Abstract

The success of SARS-CoV-2 (CoV-2) vaccines is measured by their ability to mount immune memory responses that are long-lasting. To achieve this goal, it is important to identify surrogates of immune protection, namely, CoV-2 MHC Class I and II immunodominant pieces/epitopes and methodologies to measure them. Here, we present results of flow cytometry-based MHC Class I and II QuickSwitchTM platforms for assessing SARS-CoV-2 peptide binding affinities to various human alleles as well as the H-2 Kb mouse allele. Multiple SARS-CoV-2 potential MHC binders were screened and validated by QuickSwitch testing. The screen included 31 MHC Class I and 19 MHC Class II peptides predicted to be good binders by the IEDB web resource provided by NIAID. While several predicted peptides with acceptable theoretical Kd showed poor MHC occupancies, fourteen MHC class II and three MHC class I peptides showed promiscuity in that they bind to multiple MHC molecule types. In addition to providing important data towards the study of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its presented antigenic epitopes, the peptides identified in this study can be used in the QuickSwitch platform to generate MHC tetramers. With those tetramers, scientists can assess CD4 + and CD8 + immune responses to these different MHC/peptide complexes.

Abbreviations

PEF
Peptide Exchange Factor

Keywords

SARS-CoV-2
Vaccine
MHC
Peptide
QuickSwitch
Peptide exchange

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