A survey of known immune epitopes in the enteroviruses strains associated with acute flaccid myelitis (2019)

Grifoni A, Mahajan S, Sidney J, Martini S, Scheuermann RH, Peters B, Sette A. Hum Immunol. 2019 Nov;80(11):923-929. doi: 10.1016/j.humimm.2019.08.004. Epub 2019 Aug 23. A survey of known immune epitopes in the enteroviruses strains associated with acute flaccid myelitis. PMID: 31451291 PMCID: PMC6876747 [Available on 2020-11-01] DOI: 10.1016/j.humimm.2019.08.004

ABSTRACT
Enteroviruses are potentially linked to the emergence of Acute Flaccid Myelitis (AFM), a rare but very serious condition that affects the nervous system. AFM has been associated with coxsackievirus A16, enterovirus A71 (EVA71) and enterovirus D68 (EVD68). Little is known about host-pathogen interactions for these viruses, and whether immune responses may have a protective or immunopathological role in disease presentations. Towards addressing this issue, we used the Immune Epitope Database to assess the known inventory of B and T cell epitopes from enteroviruses, focusing on data related to human hosts. The extent of conservation in areas that are targets of B and T cell immune responses were examined. This analysis sheds light on regions of the enterovirus polypeptide that can be probed to induce a specific or cross-reactive B or T cell the immune response to enteroviruses, with a particular focus on coxsackievirus A16, EVA71 and EVD68. In addition, these analyses reveal the current gap-of-knowledge in the T and B cell immune responses that future studies should aim to address.