%0 Journal Article %A Maeda, Ken %A West, Kim %A Toyosaki-Maeda, Tomoko %A Rothman, Alan L. %A Ennis, Francis A. %A Terajima, Masanori %T Identification and analysis for cross-reactivity among hantaviruses of H-2b-restricted cytotoxic T-lymphocyte epitopes in Sin Nombre virus nucleocapsid protein %D 2004 %J Journal of General Virology, %V 85 %N 7 %P 1909-1919 %@ 1465-2099 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.79945-0 %I Microbiology Society, %X Sin Nombre virus (SNV) causes hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), with a high rate of mortality in humans who are infected by the transmission of virus from the natural rodent host. In humans, cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) specific for SNV appear to play an important role in the pathogenicity of HPS. There is a correlation between the frequencies of SNV-specific CTLs and the severity of HPS disease. In order to create a mouse model to study the role of SNV-specific T cells in vivo, T cell responses to SNV nucleocapsid (N) protein in B6.PL Thy1 a/Cy mice (H-2b) immunized with plasmid DNA or recombinant vaccinia virus expressing SNV N protein were examined. Four peptides, NC94–101, NC175–189, NC217–231 and NC331–345, were recognized by CD8+ T cells in CTL and ELISPOT assays in SNV N-immunized mice. Interestingly, two of these epitopes are located in the central region of the SNV N protein, where several human CD8+ T-cell epitopes have been defined in Puumala virus and SNV. CTL lines specific for these four epitopes were cross-reactive to corresponding Puumala virus peptides, but only one of them was cross-reactive to Hantaan virus peptides. These results will enable the analysis of the roles of CTL in immunopathology of HPS in experimental mouse models of HPS. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/vir.0.79945-0