Murine cytotoxic T cells specific to respiratory syncytial virus recognize different antigenic subtypes of the virus.

The aim of this study was to establish whether cytotoxic T cells (Tc), raised against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in the mouse, are specific to the strain of immunizing virus, or cross-reactive between virus strains. Several recent studies using monoclonal antibodies have begun to define the antigenic variation among strains of RSV. It is likely that a successful RSV vaccine will need to contain antigenic determinants from more than one subtype, but since only the highest levels of neutralizing antibody are able to give complete protection against RSV infection, a vaccine may also need to elicit a cellular immune response. We have recently described H-2-restricted, RSV-specific Tc following RSV infection in the mouse; we present here evidence that polyclonal RSV-specific Tc in the mouse recognize syngeneic target cells infected with every human strain of RSV tested, whatever the subtype. The only RSV strain that appeared not to be recognized was bovine RSV, which seems unable to infect mouse cells; however, bovine cells, infected with bovine RSV and fixed with glutaraldehyde, primed mice for Tc which recognized human strains of RSV.