Figure 2
Results of screening of the 12 peptide mini-pools by quantifying intracellular IFN-γ by CD8+T cells. To select the most potential immune-dominant epitopes PBMCs from five HLA-A*2402 HCMV-seropositive donors (Donors 1–5) were stimulated with each of the 12 mini-pools and intracellular IFN-γ production was measured by flow cytometry. The results of testing cells from Donor 2 who expressed HLA-A*0201/2402 are shown. Peptide mini-pools 1 and 2 showed a higher frequency of IFN-γ accumulation by CD8+ T cells than the other mini-pools. Therefore, mini-pools 1 and 2 were selected for further study. PHA and HCMV A2 (pp65495–503) peptide-stimulated PBMCs were used as positive controls and HCMV A33 (pp6591–100) peptide and IL-2 only stimulated PBMCs (IL-2) were used as negative controls.