| First Author | Grover HS | Year | 2012 |
| Journal | Infect Immun | Volume | 80 |
| Issue | 9 | Pages | 3279-88 |
| PubMed ID | 22778097 | Mgi Jnum | J:187170 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:5435631 | Doi | 10.1128/IAI.00425-12 |
| Citation | Grover HS, et al. (2012) The Toxoplasma gondii Peptide AS15 Elicits CD4 T Cells That Can Control Parasite Burden. Infect Immun 80(9):3279-88 |
| abstractText | The apicomplexan parasite Toxoplasma gondii can cause severe disease in immunocompromised individuals. Previous studies in mice have focused largely on CD8(+) T cells, and the role of CD4 T cells is relatively unexplored. Here, we show that immunization of the C57BL/6 strain of mice, in which the immunodominant CD8 T cell response to the parasite dense-granule protein GRA6 cannot be generated, leads to a prominent CD4 T cell response. To identify the CD4 T cell-stimulating antigens, we generated a T. gondii-specific, lacZ-inducible, CD4 T cell hybridoma and used it as a probe to screen a T. gondii cDNA library. We isolated a cDNA encoding a protein of unknown function that we call CD4Ag28m and identified the minimal peptide, AS15, which was presented by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecules to the CD4 T cells. Immunization of mice with the AS15 peptide provided significant protection against subsequent parasite challenge, resulting in a lower parasite burden in the brain. Our findings identify the first CD4 T cell-stimulating peptide that can confer protection against toxoplasmosis and provide an important tool for the study of CD4 T cell responses and the design of effective vaccines against the parasite. |
