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Molecular immunology of porcine cellular immune response: analysis of peptides bound to porcine MHC molecules

Reference	BBS/E/I/00000057
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Tom Wileman
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	The Pirbright Institute
Department	The Pirbright Institute Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	103,716
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/10/1997
End date	30/09/2000
Duration	36 months

Abstract

The study of the peptide binding specificity of defined porcine MHC Class I haplotypes will enhance our understanding of what is recognised by porcine T-cells, and assist in the design of efficient vaccines against the plethora of porcine viral and intracellular parasite related diseases. In the absence of a suitable vaccine, viral disease can rapidly spread through a large number of animals and herds. In many viral infections a CTL response has been shown to correlate with protection. A suitable vaccine would therefore need to activate this response, namely by the presentation of antigen in association with the cell surface molecule MHC Class I. In this project we have analyzed peptides bound to porcine MHC Class I molecules. This information will help in the design of subunit vaccines able to protect against these important diseases. Analysis of MHC Class I molecules isolated from various inbred and outbred pigs by iso- electric focussing demonstrated the expression of between 2 and 4 distinct molecules. Immunoaffinity columns were used to isolate a single MHC molecule from an inbred population of pigs. Sequencing of the peptide pool by Edman Degradation showed a preference for hydrophobic amino acids at position 3 of the 9mer peptide and for leucine/isoleucine at position 9. We wish to confirm this result by sequencing individual peptides from the pool. Once a motif has been established we intend to search the open reading frames of ASFV, CSFV and FMDV genome for proteins with epitopes containing the motif. The antigenicity of these epitopes can then be determined using synthetic peptides loaded onto target cells in cytotoxity assays using CTLs from animals recovered from viral infection.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Animal Sciences (AS)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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