Human CD8+ T cells from TB pleurisy respond to four immunodominant epitopes in Mtb CFP10 restricted by HLA-B alleles.

CD8(+) T cells are essential for host defense to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection and identification of CD8(+) T cell epitopes from Mtb is of importance for the development of effective peptide-based diagnostics and vaccines. We previously demonstrated that the secreted 10-KDa culture filtrate protein (CFP10) from Mtb is a potent CD8(+) T cell antigen but the repertoire and dominance pattern of human CD8 epitopes for CFP10 remained poorly characterized. In the present study, we undertook to define immunodominant CD8 epitopes involved in CFP10 using a panel of CFP10-derived 13-15 amino acid (aa) peptides overlapping by 11 aa. Four peptides in CFP10 were observed to induce significant CD8(+) T cell responses and we further determined the size of the epitopes involved in each individual peptide tested. Four 9 aa CD8 epitopes were finally identified and deleting a single amino acid from the N or C terminus of either peptide markedly reduced IFN-γ production, suggesting that they are minimum of CD8 epitopes. In the individuals tested, each epitope represented a single immunodominant response in CD8(+) T cells. The epitope-specific CD8(+) T cells displayed effector or effector memory phenotypes and could upregulate the expression of CD107a/b upon antigen stimulation. In addition, we found that epitope-specific CD8(+) T cells shared biased usage of T cell receptor (TCR) variable region of β chain (Vβ) 12, 9, 7.2 or Vβ4 chains. As judged from HLA-typing results and using bioinformatics technology for prediction of MHC binding affinity, we found that the epitope-specific CD8(+) T cells are all restricted by HLA-B alleles. Our findings suggest that the four epitopes in CFP10 recognized by CD8(+) T cells might be of importance for the development of Mtb peptide-based vaccines and for improved diagnosis of TB in humans.