Identification of a spike-specific CD8+ T cell epitope following vaccination against the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus in humans

Caroline E Harrer; Leonie Mayer; Anahita Fathi; Susan Lassen; My L Ly; Madeleine E Zinser; Timo Wolf; Stephan Becker; Gerd Sutter; Christine Dahlke; Marylyn M Addo; MVA-MERS-S Study Group

doi:10.1093/infdis/jiad612

Identification of a spike-specific CD8+ T cell epitope following vaccination against the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus in humans

J Infect Dis. 2024 Jan 9:jiad612. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiad612. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Caroline E Harrer^{1

2

3}, Leonie Mayer^{1

2

3}, Anahita Fathi^{1

2

3

4}, Susan Lassen^{1

2

3}, My L Ly^{1

2

3}, Madeleine E Zinser^{1

2

3}, Timo Wolf⁵, Stephan Becker^{6

7}, Gerd Sutter^{8

9}, Christine Dahlke^{1

2

3}, Marylyn M Addo^{1

2

3

4}; MVA-MERS-S Study Group

Collaborators

MVA-MERS-S Study Group:
Etienne Bartels, Swantje Gundlach, Bart Haagmanns, Thomas Hesterkamp, Till Koch, Verena Krähling, Joseph Poetsch, Stefan Schmiedel, Asisa Volz

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Infection Research and Vaccine Development (IIRVD), University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
² Department for Clinical Immunology of Infectious Diseases, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany.
³ German Center for Infection Research, partner sites Hamburg-Lübeck-Borstel-Riems, Hamburg, Germany.
⁴ First Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
⁵ Goethe University Frankfurt, University Hospital, Department of Internal Medicine II, Division of Infectious Diseases, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
⁶ German Center for Infection Research, partner site Gießen-Marburg-Langen, Germany.
⁷ Institute of Virology, Philipps University Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
⁸ German Center for Infection Research, partner site Munich, Germany.
⁹ Division of Virology, Institute for Infectious Diseases and Zoonoses, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany.

PMID: 38195212
DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jiad612

Abstract

Licensed vaccines against the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), an emerging pathogen of concern, are lacking. The Modified Vaccinia virus Ankara vector-based vaccine MVA-MERS-S, expressing the MERS-CoV-spike glycoprotein (MERS-S), is one of three candidate vaccines in clinical development and elicits robust humoral and cellular immunity. Here, we identified for the first time a MERS-S-specific CD8+ T-cell epitope in an HLA-A*03:01/HLA-B*35:01-positive vaccinee using a screening assay, intracellular cytokine staining, and in silico epitope prediction. As evidence from MERS-CoV infection suggests a protective role of long-lasting CD8+ T-cell responses, the identification of epitopes will facilitate longitudinal analyses of vaccine-induced T-cell immunity.

Keywords: CD8+ T cells; MERS-CoV; MVA; epitope; vaccine; viral vector.