Degenerate immunogenicity of an HLA-A2-restricted hepatitis B virus nucleocapsid cytotoxic T-lymphocyte epitope that is also presented by HLA-B51.

The recent identification of hepatitis B virus (HBV) epitopes restricted by multiple HLA alleles has greatly expanded the epitope repertoire available for T-cell-mediated therapeutic vaccine development. The HLA-B51-restricted peptide HBc19-27 is particularly interesting because it is located entirely within the HLA-A2-restricted HBc18-27 epitope. Here we show that HLA-B51-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocytes specific for HBc19-27 from a patient with acute HBV infection were also able to lyse HLA-B51-positive target cells pulsed with HBc18-27 and to produce gamma interferon when stimulated by that peptide, implying that HBc18-27 can be presented by HLA-B51 as well as by HLA-A2. These results demonstrate the concept of degenerate immunogenicity across HLA class supertype boundaries in a human viral disease setting. In addition, they could facilitate the development of an epitope-based therapeutic vaccine to terminate chronic HBV infection that could provide a broad and diverse population coverage with a single peptide.