Delineation of canine parvovirus T cell epitopes with peripheral blood mononuclear cells and T cell clones from immunized dogs

1 Laboratory of Immunobiology, National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection, P.O. Box 1, 3720 BA Bilthoven 2 Central Veterinary Institute, P.O. Box 65, Lelystad, The Netherlands and 3 Department of Microbiology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, U.S.A. Three synthetic peptides derived from the amino acid sequence of VP 2 of canine parvovirus (CPV) which were recently shown to represent three distinct T cell epitopes for BALB/c mice could prime BALB/c mice for a CPV-specific proliferative T cell response upon immunization. Proliferative responses of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from CPV-immunized dogs upon stimulation with these and other peptides, covering the major part of the sequence of VP 2 ', identified the presence of T cell epitopes for this species. Most of these epitopes were recognized by PBMC from only a minority of the dogs tested. With three newly generated canine Thyl + T cell clones, which recognized CPV antigen in association with major histocompatibility complex class II molecules, two distinct T cell epitopes were identified within the unique sequence of VP 1 . Received 16 March 1990; accepted 28 June 1990.