Identification of a T-cell epitope in the Staphylococcus aureus Panton-Valentine LukS-PV component

Eric L. Brown, Keri Csencsits Smith, Maria Gabriela Bowden

Center for Infectious Disease, University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston, USA.
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University Texas-Houston Medical School, Houston, USA.
Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M University Health Science Center, Houston, USA;.

DOI: 10.4236/oji.2012.23013                

Abstract

We previously observed the elicitation of a significant delayed-type hypersensitivity response to the Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) LukS-PV subunit following subcutaneous immunization (Brown et al., Clinical Microbiology and Infection, 2009, 156: 156-164). A LukS-PV-specific cell line (LST) was screened for proliferative responses against a panel of 25 amino acid-long peptides spanning the length of LukS-PV (amino acids 29-312). This analysis demonstrated that stimulation of LST with LukS-PV resulted in significant proliferative responses and adoptive transfer of LST into na?ve mice conferred a LukS-PV-specific DTH response following challenge. Challenge of mice adoptively transferred with LST with peptides 7 (149-173), 8 (169-193) and 14 (289-312) also elicited a measurable DTH response suggesting that these peptides contained T cell epitopes.

Keywords

Staphylococcus; Cell Mediated Immunity; Panton-Valentine Leukocidin; T Cells

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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