Investigation of T cell responses to Nipah virus by genome-wide antigen screening and conservation across Paramyxoviridae 4537

Description An important component of readiness against potential future viral pandemic is the broad study of adaptive immunity, to enable measurement of host responses and accelerate vaccine development and testing. Several Paramyxoviridae viruses, including measles, mumps and parainfluenza, pose significant public health risks. Amongst Paramyxoviridae viruses, Nipah virus in particular is associated with high concern in terms of pandemic potential, because of repeated outbreaks and its high pathogenicity in the range of 40-75%. While there is evidence that T cells play a role in controlling or terminating Paramyxoviridae infections and ameliorating disease, there is a general scarcity of defined epitopes in humans. We used a de-novo in-vitro stimulation approach to study T cell responses to Nipah virus proteins and identify immunogenic epitopes in humans. Additionally, we analyze the degree of conservation of Nipah epitopes in other viruses of the Paramyxoviridae family to address the hypothesis that broadly immunogenic and highly conserved Paramyxoviridae epitope regions could be identified. Our approach greatly expands knowledge of immunogenic regions encoded in the Nipah virus proteome and assesses the feasibility of a pan-Paramyxoviridae vaccine approach. Funding Sources This study has been funded by the NIH/NIAID contract No.75N93024C00056 and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to A.G. and A.S. A.T. was supported by NIH T32AI125179.