Kinetics and Immunodominance of Virus-Specific T Cell Responses During Hantaan Virus Infection.

Abstract Immunodominant T cell responses are important for protection against virus challenge. However, studies screening for the immunodominant T cell responses and following their kinetics in acute Hantaan virus (HTNV) infection are very limited. Herein, the HTNV nucleocapsid protein-specific T cell responses were longitudinally screened in 15 patients with acute HTNV infection, eight of whom had a particularly severe hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS). An extremely impaired IFN-γ–producing T cell response was observed in patients with severe HFRS at the early stage of infection, especially to the immunodominant epitopes detected in the mild to moderate group, namely peptides N127–141, N139–153, N241–255, and N355–369. The initially insufficient T cell response to the immunodominant epitopes may play a role in influencing the severity of HTNV infection. These findings provide information that may aid the design of future vaccines against hantaviruses.