Lin Xiaoyun, Chen Shao, Xue Xiangyang, Lu Lijun, Zhu Shanli, Li Wenshu, Chen Xiangmin, Zhong Xiaozhi, Jiang Pengfei, Sename Torsoo Sophia, Zheng Yi, Zhang Lifang
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Molecular Virology and Immunology, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China.
School of Laboratory Medicine and Life Science, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China.
Cell Mol Immunol. 2016 Jul;13(4):492-501. doi: 10.1038/cmi.2015.29. Epub 2015 Apr 13.
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is prevalent throughout the world and is associated with several malignant diseases in humans. Latent membrane protein 2 (LMP2) of EBV plays a crucial role in the pathogenesis of EBV-associated tumors; therefore, LMP2 has been considered to be a potential immunodiagnostic and immunotherapeutic target. A multi-epitope-based antigen is a promising option for therapeutic vaccines and diagnoses of such malignancies. In this study, we systematically screened cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL), helper T cell (Th) and B-cell epitopes within EBV-LMP2 using bioinformatics. Based on the screen, two peptides rich in overlapping epitopes of both T cells and B cells were selected to construct a plasmid containing the sequence for a chimeric multi-epitope protein referred to as EBV-LMP2m, which is composed of LMP2aa195∼232 and LMP2aa419∼436. The EBV-LMP2m protein was expressed in E. coli BL21 (DE3) after prokaryotic codon optimization. Inoculation of the purified chimeric antigen in BALB/c mice induced not only high levels of specific IgG in the serum and secretory IgA in the vaginal mucus but also a specific CTL response. By using purified EBV-LMP2m as an antigen, the presence of specific IgG in the serum specimens of 202 nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients was effectively detected with 52.84% sensitivity and 95.40% specificity, which represents an improvement over the traditional detection method based on VCA-IgA (60.53% sensitivity and 76.86% specificity). The above results indicate that EBV-LMP2m may be used not only as a potential target antigen for EBV-associated tumors but also a diagnostic agent for NPC patients.
爱泼斯坦-巴尔病毒(EBV)在全球广泛流行,与人类的多种恶性疾病相关。EBV的潜伏膜蛋白2(LMP2)在EBV相关肿瘤的发病机制中起关键作用;因此,LMP2被认为是潜在的免疫诊断和免疫治疗靶点。基于多表位的抗原是此类恶性肿瘤治疗性疫苗和诊断的一个有前景的选择。在本研究中,我们使用生物信息学方法系统筛选了EBV-LMP2内的细胞毒性T淋巴细胞(CTL)、辅助性T细胞(Th)和B细胞表位。基于筛选结果,选择了两条富含T细胞和B细胞重叠表位的肽段,构建了一个包含嵌合多表位蛋白序列的质粒,该蛋白称为EBV-LMP2m,由LMP2aa195∼232和LMP2aa419∼436组成。经原核密码子优化后,EBV-LMP2m蛋白在大肠杆菌BL21(DE3)中表达。将纯化的嵌合抗原接种到BALB/c小鼠体内,不仅诱导血清中产生高水平的特异性IgG和阴道黏液中产生分泌型IgA,还诱导了特异性CTL反应。以纯化的EBV-LMP2m作为抗原,有效检测了202例鼻咽癌(NPC)患者血清标本中特异性IgG的存在,灵敏度为52.84%,特异性为95.40%,比基于VCA-IgA的传统检测方法(灵敏度60.53%,特异性76.86%)有所提高。上述结果表明,EBV-LMP2m不仅可作为EBV相关肿瘤的潜在靶抗原,还可作为NPC患者的诊断试剂。