Identification of the association between HBcAg-specific T cell and viral control in chronic HBV infection using a cultured ELISPOT assay.

Identification of the association between HBcAg-specific T cell and viral control in chronic HBV infection using a cultured ELISPOT assay. J Leukoc Biol. 2020 Jul 03;: Authors: Chen C, Jiang X, Liu X, Guo L, Wang W, Gu S, Wen C, Yi X, Tang L, Li Y Abstract Hepatitis B virus (HBV)-specific T cells play a critical role in determining the outcome of HBV infection. However, T cell response induced by predominant Ag in chronic infection is hardly detectable owing to the lack of a suitable assay. We herein established an optimized method to enumerate HBV-specific T cells and assessed the association between HBV surface Ag (HBsAg) and HBV DNA. Sixty chronic HBV infection patients were enrolled. HBV-specific T cells were expanded by using overlapping peptide pools covering the entire sequence of HBV genotypes B and C. IFN-γ-producing HBV-specific T cells were detected by a cultured enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assay, ex vivo ELISPOT assay, or flow cytometry staining. The association between HBV-specific T cells and serum levels of HBsAg and HBV DNA were analyzed. Cultured ELISPOT assay had a higher sensitivity than ex vivo ELISPOT in the detection of HBV-specific T cells. Moreover, consistent results were acquired by flow cytometry analysis and cultured ELISPOT assay, but the latter required only a limited number of cells for detection. Interestingly, HBV core peptide pool induced a robust HBV-specific T cell response in patients with...
Source: Journal of Leukocyte Biology - Category: Hematology Authors: Tags: J Leukoc Biol Source Type: research