Sorting and pooling strategy: A novel tool to map a virus proteome for CD8 T‐cell epitopes

Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a major cause of morbidity in immunocompromised individuals. However, no efficient vaccine has been developed to date. Identification of T‐cell target proteins and epitopes is crucial not only for developing a successful immunization strategy, but also for new approaches using adoptive transfer of antigen‐specific T‐cells. The CMV genome has more than 200 open reading frames potentially coding for as many proteins. Here, we describe a robust, fast, and simple SPOT synthesis strategy, which allowed us to micro‐synthesize every possible CD8 T‐cell epitope in the entire potential CMV proteome. So far, 9069 of these peptides have been tested in an ex vivo T‐cell stimulation assay. As well as confirming a number of previously known epitopes, we identified several new ones. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers (Pept Sci) 88:64–75, 2007. This article was originally published online as an accepted preprint. The “Published Online” date corresponds to the preprint version. You can request a copy of the preprint by emailing the Biopolymers editorial office at biopolymers@wiley.com.