Diversity of the CD8+ T-cell response to herpes simplex virus type 2 proteins among persons with genital herpes.

Cytolytic T cells play a major role in controlling herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infections in humans. In an effort to more thoroughly evaluate the response to HSV-2 directly, ex vivo, we developed an enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assay that utilized pools of overlapping synthetic peptides presented by autologous dendritic cells to purified CD8(+) T cells. Donor response rates to individual open reading frames (ORFs) ranged from fewer than 5% responding to as many as 70% responding, with the greatest frequency of responses (by ORF) being directed against UL39, UL25, UL27, ICP0, UL46, and UL47 in descending order of frequency.

HER2 dendritic cell vaccines.

HER2/neu, a tumor antigen overexpressed by a third of breast cancers, is a potential target for vaccine therapies. A particularly potent immunization strategy to induce T-cell responses against tumor antigens is to use dendritic cells (DCs) loaded with the tumor antigen. We performed two small studies to test the safety, feasibility, and immunologic and clinical responses to immunizations with in vitro-generated DCs loaded with either a human leukocyte antigen A2-restricted peptide fragment of the extracellular domain of the tumor antigen HER2 (E75) or a HER2 intracellular domain (ICD) protein in patients with high-risk resected breast cancer or metastatic cancers expressing HER2.