Structural features of T-cell recognition: applications to vaccine design

T lymphocytes, in contrast to antibodies, appear to recognize primarily a limited number of antigenic sites on any given antigenic protein. We find that a single site can so dominate the T-cell repertoire that the presence or absence of a response to one immunodominant site can make the difference between a high responder and a low responder, even though low responders respond to other sites almost as well as high responders. Besides interaction with major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules, the mode by which the antigen is processed into fragments for T-cell recognition also determines which sites are seen. The products of natural processing of the protein appear to be larger than the synthetic peptides and contain structures which hinder binding to certain MHC molecules or to the T-cell receptor. A third factor in immunodominance is the intrinsic structure of the antigenic site. We have shown that amphipathic helices have a higher than random chance of being immunodominant, and have developed a computer program to locate such structures in protein amino acid sequences. We prospectively predicted sites in the malaria circumsporozoite protein and found that the four most widely recognized sites in an endemic area of West Africa were all predicted. Similarly, we identified two helper T-cell sites from the HIV (AIDS virus) envelope, and have now shown that immunization with these elicits enhanced antibody responses to the whole envelope when injected into monkeys. These sites are also recognized by human T cells from volunteers who had been immunized with a recombinant vaccinia virus expressing the HIV envelope. Also, because cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLS) may play a critical role in defence against AIDS, we have used a recombinant vaccinia virus and transfectants expressing the HIV envelope gene to induce specific CTLS against the HIV envelope. Using synthetic peptides, we were able to identify the first CTL recognition site in the AIDS virus. These results may contribute to the rational design of vaccines.