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Journal of Virology, August 2006, p. 8263-8266, Vol. 80, No. 16
0022-538X/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.00400-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

CD4⁺ T-Cell Responses to Epstein-Barr Virus Nuclear Antigen EBNA1 in Chinese Populations Are Highly Focused on Novel C-Terminal Domain-Derived Epitopes

C. W. Tsang,^1, X. Lin,^2, N. H. Gudgeon,¹ G. S. Taylor,¹ H. Jia,¹ E. P. Hui,^2,3 A. T. C. Chan,^2,3 C. K. Lin,⁴ and A. B. Rickinson^1*

CR-UK Institute for Cancer Studies, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom,¹ Sir J. K. Pao Centre for Cancer, Hong Kong Cancer Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong,² Department of Clinical Oncology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong,³ Hong Kong Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service, Kowloon, Hong Kong⁴

Received 24 February 2006/ Accepted 1 June 2006

Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen EBNA1, the one viral protein uniformly expressed in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), represents a prime target for T-cell-based immunotherapy. However, little is known about the EBNA1 epitopes, particularly CD4 epitopes, presented by HLA alleles in Chinese people, the group at highest risk for NPC. We analyzed the CD4⁺ T-cell responses to EBNA1 in 78 healthy Chinese donors and found marked focusing on a small number of epitopes in the EBNA1 C-terminal region, including a DP5-restricted epitope that was recognized by almost half of the donors tested and elicited responses able to recognize EBNA1-expressing, DP5-positive target cells.

C.W.T. and X.L. contributed equally to this work.