Highly translated EBNAΔGA induces a stronger T cell response.

An effective alarm leads to an effective response. On page 525, Tellam et al. show that increased translation of a viral protein results in a more effective display of epitopes to T cells and thus a better immune response.

Most viral epitopes are derived not from long-lived stable proteins but from defectively translated and rapidly degraded intermediates. More translation should lead to more intermediates and thus more epitope presentation. However, this link has not been convincingly shown with identical proteins that have different translation efficiencies.

Tellam and colleagues compared cells translating either EBNA1 from Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), or a mutant version of EBNA1 that lacked EBNA1's self-inhibiting sequence and was therefore translated more rapidly.

Cells expressing the normal EBNA1 generated very few epitopes and failed to activate T cells. In contrast, cells expressing the mutant...

The Rockefeller University Press
2007
The Rockefeller University Press
2007
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