Predictive B- and T-cell linear epitopes in structural proteins of HTLV-I, HTLV-II, and STLV-I.

The primary amino acid sequences derived from the gag, pol, and env gene products of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) and type II (HTLV-II) and the env protein of simian T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (STLV-I) were aligned and computer algorithms were used to predict B- and T-cell epitopes. Structural B- and T-cell motifs that showed amino acid sequence conservation of antigenic determinants in HTLV-I, HTLV-II, and STLV-I, as well as different antigenic determinants of HTLV-I and HTLV-II, were identified. Several of these B and T epitopes have been shown experimentally to be immunodominant and two of the B epitopes have been used for type-specific serology. These predictive epitopes provide a guide to develop improved diagnostic assays and for the development of potential subunit vaccines for HILV-I and HTLV-II.