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Figure 1 | Journal of Translational Medicine

Figure 1

From: Identification of HLA-A*2402-restricted HCMV immediate early-1 (IE-1) epitopes as targets for CD8+ HCMV-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes

Figure 1

IE-1 peptide library and study design. The library of peptides spanning HCMV IE-1 was made up of 120 peptides 15 amino acids in length that overlapped by 11 residues which were used to make 12 mini-pools each containing 10 consecutive peptides. We screened and choose the most immunogenic mini-pools by quantifying IFN-γ production by stimulated CD8+ CTLs using intracellular flow cytometry analysis. After finding that mini-pools 1 and 2 were the most potent stimulators of IFN-γ, we screened and choose the best 15-amino acid peptides among twenty 15-amino acid peptides belonging to these two mini-pools by quantifying IFN-γ production by peptide stimulated CD8+ CTLs using flow cytometry and a HCMV-infected target cell killing assay. Next, we identified the exact HLA class I restricted-HLA-A*2402 epitope by screening a total of twenty-one overlapping nona- or decamer peptides spanning selected 15-amino acid peptides. These 21 peptides were also tested by intracellular flow cytometry and cytotoxicity assays.

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