18-mers overlapping peptides (olps)  (Genaxxon BioScience GmbH)

Journal: Journal of Hepatology

Article Title: Boosting compromised SARS-CoV-2-specific immunity with mRNA vaccination in liver transplant recipients

doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2023.02.007

Figure Lengend Snippet: Impaired adaptive effector response in LTRs vs . HCs after three doses of mRNA vaccination. (A) Spike-specific IgG-levels in HCs and LTRs after the 3 rd vaccine dose (LTRs n = 16, HCs n = 14). (B) Numbers of CD8+ T-cell responses to spike-OLPs after in vitro expansion per patient after the 3 rd vaccine dose (HCs n = 9; LTRs n = 9). (C) Number and location of CD8+ T-cell responses to spike-OLPs after in vitro expansion in HCs (top) vs. LTRs (bottom) after the 3 rd vaccine dose. Numbers of tested individuals (per HLA allotype and in total) are indicated. OLPs with >1 HLA-matched previously described epitopes are crosshatched. (D) Ex vivo frequency of spike-specific CD8+ T cells in HCs and LTRs after the 3 rd vaccine dose (HCs n = 12; LTRs n = 11). Cut-off for positive responses is indicated by a dashed line. Statistics: Mann-Whitney U test (A, B, D). HCs, healthy controls; LTRs, liver transplant recipients; OLPs, overlapping peptides.

Article Snippet: We tested a total of 182 overlapping peptides (OLPs) spanning the entire SARS-CoV-2 spike protein sequence (Gene Bank Accession code MN908947.3), synthesized as 18-mers overlapping by 11 amino acids with a free amine NH 2 terminus and a free acid COOH terminus with standard Fmoc chemistry showing a purity of >70% (Genaxxon Bioscience).

Techniques: In Vitro, Ex Vivo, MANN-WHITNEY

Journal: Journal of Hepatology

Article Title: Boosting compromised SARS-CoV-2-specific immunity with mRNA vaccination in liver transplant recipients

doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2023.02.007

Figure Lengend Snippet: Small effect of mRNA booster vaccination on the cellular effector response. (A) Spike-specific IgG-levels in HCs and LTRs at 14-30 days after the 2 nd (HCs n = 11, LTRs n = 9), 31-100 days after the 2 nd (HCs n = 12, LTRs n = 17), 31-100 days after the 3 rd (HCs n = 14, LTRs n = 16) or 26-100 days after the 4 th (HCs n = 4, LTRs n = 4) vaccination. (B) Number of CD8+ T-cell responses per individual to spike-OLP after in vitro expansion in HCs and LTRs followed longitudinally after the 2 nd (HCs n = 9, LTRs n = 8), 3 rd (HCs n = 9, LTRs n = 8) and 4 th (HCs n = 2, LTRs n = 3) vaccine dose. (C) Number and location of CD8+ T-cell responses to spike-OLP after in vitro expansion in LTRs (n = 3) after the 2 nd , 3 rd and 4 th mRNA vaccination. OLPs with >1 HLA-matched, previously described, epitopes are crosshatched. (D) Calculated ex vivo frequencies of spike-specific CD8+ T cells at 14-30 days after the 2 nd (HCs n = 12, LTRs n = 6), 31-100 days after the 2 nd (HCs n = 10, LTRs n = 11), 31-100 days after the 3 rd (HCs n = 12, LTRs n = 11) or 26-100 days after the 4 th (HCs n = 4, LTRs n = 5) vaccine dose. Cut-off for positive responses is indicated by a dashed line. Statistics: Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test (B) and two-way ANOVA for multiple comparison (A, D) to examine the effect of condition (HCs vs. LTRs), as well as Kruskal-Wallis test (A, D) to examine the effect of vaccination time point on spike-specific IgG levels and CD8+ T-cell frequencies. HCs, healthy controls; LTRs, liver transplant recipients; OLPs, overlapping peptides.

Article Snippet: We tested a total of 182 overlapping peptides (OLPs) spanning the entire SARS-CoV-2 spike protein sequence (Gene Bank Accession code MN908947.3), synthesized as 18-mers overlapping by 11 amino acids with a free amine NH 2 terminus and a free acid COOH terminus with standard Fmoc chemistry showing a purity of >70% (Genaxxon Bioscience).

Techniques: In Vitro, Ex Vivo, Comparison

Journal: Gut

Article Title: Impact of HBsAg and HBcrAg levels on phenotype and function of HBV-specific T cells in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection

doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2021-324646

Figure Lengend Snippet: HBV-specific CD4 + and CD8 + T cell responses in different age groups. HBV-specific CD4 + and CD8 + T cell responses following 10-day in vitro stimulation with HBV overlapping peptide (OLP) pools grouped according to the patients’ age. (A) Representative flow cytometry plots of HBV core-specific IFN-γ + /TNF + CD4 + T cell responses of two patients. (B) Heat map showing mean of frequencies of total cytokine + HBV-specific CD4 + and CD8 + T cells (age groups: 18–39, n=25; 40–49, n=17; ≥50, n=15). (C) IFN-γ + HBV-specific CD4 + and CD8 + T cells of different age groups. (D) Correlation analyses of age with frequencies of total IFN-γ + CD4 + and CD8 + T cells. (E) Mean percentages of multifunctional CD4 + and CD8 + T cell responses after in vitro expansion with total HBV OLPs (sum of 14 OLP pools). Statistical significance between each of the two groups was tested by Mann-Whitney test for non-parametric data and by unpaired t-test for parametric data (B–C). *p<0.05; **p<0.01. IFN, interferon; TNF, tumour necrosis factor.

Article Snippet: HBV-specific genotype D overlapping peptides (OLPs) (ProImmune, Oxford, UK) were made up of 15 amino acids, overlapped by 10 amino acids, spanned the entire HBV core (two pools), surface (four pools) and polymerase (eight pools) ( ).

Techniques: In Vitro, Flow Cytometry, MANN-WHITNEY