Oncotarget

Research Papers: Immunology:

Systematic identification of immunodominant CD4+ T cell responses to HpaA in Helicobacter pylori infected individuals

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Oncotarget. 2016; 7:54380-54391. https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.11092

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Jian Hu1,2,*, Li Chen3,4,*, Wuchen Yang1,5, Bin Li3, Heqiang Sun3, Shanshan Wei1, Yafei He1, Zhuo Zhao3, Shiming Yang1, Quanming Zou3, Weisan Chen6, Hong Guo1 and Chao Wu3

1 Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, PR China

2 Department of Intensive Care Unit, Chengdu Military General Hospital, Chengdu, PR China

3 National Engineering Research Center of Immunological Products, Department of Microbiology and Biochemical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, PR China

4 Department of Blood Transfusion, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, PR China

5 Department of Hematology, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, PR China

6 T cell Laboratory, La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science, School of Molecular Science, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia

* These authors have contributed equally to this work

Correspondence to:

Chao Wu, email:

Hong Guo, email:

Keywords: Helicobacter pylori; HpaA; immunodominant epitope; HLA-DRB1*0901; Immunology and Microbiology Section; Immune response; Immunity

Received: November 17, 2015 Accepted: June 29, 2016 Published: August 05, 2016

Abstract

In mice, antigen-specific CD4+ T cell response is indispensible for the protective immunity against Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori). It has been demonstrated that neuraminyllactose-binding hemagglutinin (HpaA) immunization protected mice from H. pylori infection in a CD4+ T cell dependent manner. However, much remains unclear concerning the human CD4+ T cell responses to HpaA. We conducted a systematic study here to explore the immunodominant, HpaA-specific CD4+ T cell responses in H. pylori infected individuals. We found that HpaA-specific CD4+ T cell responses varied remarkably in their magnitude and had broad epitope-specificity. Importantly, the main responses focused on two regions: HpaA76-105 and HpaA130-159. The HLA-DRB1*0901 restricted HpaA142-159 specific CD4+ T cell response was the most immunodominant response at a population level. The immunodominant epitope HpaA142-159 was naturally presented and highly conserved. We also demonstrated that it was not the broad peptide specificity, but the strength of HpaA specific CD4+ T cell responses associated with gastric diseases potentially caused by H. pylori infection. Such investigation will aid development of novel vaccines against H. pylori infection.