Antigens and immunoevasins are opponents in cytomegalovirus immune surveillance.

2003 MAR 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Antigens and immunoevasins act as opponents in cytomegalovirus immune surveillance.

According to recent research from Germany, "CD8+ T cells are the main effector cells for the immune control of cytomegaloviruses. To subvert this control, human and mouse cytomegaloviruses each encode a set of immune-evasion proteins, referred to here as immunoevasins, which interfere specifically with the MHC class I pathway of antigen processing and presentation."

"Although the concerted action of immunoevasins prevents the presentation of certain viral peptides, other viral peptides escape this blockade conditionally or constitutively and thereby provide the molecular basis of immune surveillance by CD8+ T cells," said Matthias J. Reddehase at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. "The definition of viral antigenic peptides that are presented despite the presence of immunoevasins adds a further dimension to the prediction of protective epitopes for use in vaccines."

The investigator reported, "With one exception, immunoevasins are expressed in the second temporal phase of cytomegalovirus gene expression, known as the early (E) phase. Antiviral protection by CD8+ T cells might be explained by the recognition of antigenic ...