MHC: Peptide analysis: Implications on the immunogenicity of hantaviruses' N protein

Abstract

Hantaviruses, members of the Bunyaviridae family, are enveloped negative-stranded RNA viruses with tripartite genomes - S, M and L. The S genome codes for a nucleocapsid (N) protein, which is quite conserved among different species of the hantavirus genus and possess a recognized immunogenicity. In this work we analyzed the sequence of two regions in this protein (N 94-101 and N180-188), which presents T cell epitopes for two species of hantaviruses - Sin Nombre and Puumala. Interestingly, the same region has no described epitopes for Hantaan virus, despite its similarity. A study using a bioinformatic approach for the construction of MHC:peptide complexes was performed to detect any variation on the cleft region that could explain such degrees of immunogenicity. Our results shown topological and charges differences among the constructed complexes. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.