Murdolo Lawton D, Liwei Leong Samuel, Maddumage Janesha C, Mifsud Nicole, Chatzileontiadou Demetra Sm, Grant Emma J, Gras Stephanie
Infection and Immunity Program, La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science (LIMS), Bundoora VIC, Australia.
Department of Biochemistry and Chemistry, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC, Australia.
Biochem J. 2025 Jun 26. doi: 10.1042/BCJ20240739.
The Influenza B virus (IBV) can pose a significant threat to global health. Despite this, IBV is understudied compared to Influenza A virus (IAV). CD8+ T cells have proven highly effective in reducing influenza disease severity. In addition, pre-existing immune responses towards IAV epitopes may provide protection against homologous IBV-derived peptides due to T cell cross-reactivity. To exploit the advantages of T cells for future vaccine developments, a better understanding of the IBV-derived peptide presentation by the highly polymorphic Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) is required. We previously determined that the IAV-derived PB1177-A peptide was presented by the HLA-B18:01 molecule and induced CD8+ T cell responses. Here we assessed the PB1177-A IBV homologue (PB1177-B). Intracellular cytokine staining assays showed that PB1177-B was unable to activate CD8+ T cells from several HLA-B18:01+ samples tested. We determined that the IAV- and IBV-derived PB1177 adopted different stability and conformation in the cleft of HLA-B18:01. Molecular dynamics analysis on the crystal structure showed that PB1177-B had a central flexible region with a large hydrophobic patch formed by two phenylalanine residues, not present in PB1177-A. The flexibility and the lower stability of the HLA-B18:01-PB1177-B complex may hinder CD8+ T cell receptor binding, underpinning the lack of CD8+ T cell activation observed. This provides additional insights into the differences between IAV- and IBV-specific CD8+ T cell responses.
乙型流感病毒(IBV)会对全球健康构成重大威胁。尽管如此,与甲型流感病毒(IAV)相比,对IBV的研究较少。事实证明,CD8 + T细胞在降低流感疾病严重程度方面非常有效。此外,由于T细胞交叉反应性,针对IAV表位的预先存在的免疫反应可能提供针对同源IBV衍生肽的保护。为了在未来的疫苗开发中利用T细胞的优势,需要更好地了解高度多态的人类白细胞抗原(HLA)对IBV衍生肽的呈递情况。我们之前确定IAV衍生的PB1177-A肽由HLA-B18:01分子呈递并诱导CD8 + T细胞反应。在此,我们评估了PB1177-A的IBV同源物(PB1177-B)。细胞内细胞因子染色分析表明,PB1177-B无法激活所测试的多个HLA-B18:01+样本中的CD8 + T细胞。我们确定IAV和IBV衍生的PB1177在HLA-B18:01的裂隙中具有不同的稳定性和构象。对晶体结构的分子动力学分析表明,PB1177-B有一个中央柔性区域,由两个苯丙氨酸残基形成一个大的疏水补丁,而PB1177-A中不存在。HLA-B18:01-PB1177-B复合物的柔性和较低稳定性可能会阻碍CD8 + T细胞受体结合,这是观察到缺乏CD8 + T细胞激活的原因。这为IAV和IBV特异性CD8 + T细胞反应之间的差异提供了更多见解。