Background information
SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2), also known as novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV, causes fever, severe respiratory illness and can lead to life threatening pneumonia. The first cases of this disease, termed COVID-19 for coronavirus disease 2019, have been detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, China.
The PepTivator
® SARS-CoV-2 Select pool contains 88 peptides of 9 – 22 aa in length. 63 of these peptides are MHC class I-restricted and 25 peptides are MHC class II-restricted. The peptides originate from structural proteins (S, M, N, E) as well as non-structural proteins.
The peptides are restricted to the following HLA-molecules: HLA-A*01, A*02, A*03, A*11, A*24, A*29, A*30, A*31, A*68, B*07, B*08, B*15, B*27, B*35, B*40, B*44, B*54, B*58, C*07, DRB1*01, DRB1*03, DRB1*04, DRB1*07, DRB1*11, DRB1*15.
Applications
The in vitro stimulation of SARS-CoV-2–specific CD4
+ and CD8
+ T cells with PepTivator
® SARS-CoV-2 Select causes secretion of effector cytokines and upregulation of activation markers, which then allow the detection and isolation of SARS-CoV-2–specific T cells:
Detection and analysis of antigen-specific CD4
+ and CD8
+ effector/memory T cells in PBMCs by MACS
® Cytokine Secretion Assays, intracellular cytokine staining, or other technologies.
Isolation of viable antigen-specific CD4
+ T cells with the CD154 MicroBead Kit, or of viable CD4
+ and CD8
+ T cells using MACS Cytokine Secretion Assay – Cell Enrichment and Detection Kits. Subsequently, cells can be expanded for generation of T cell lines.
Generation antigen-specific CD4
+ and CD8
+ effector/ memory T cells from naive T cell populations.
Pulsing of antigen-presenting cells e.g. for research on dendritic cell vaccination.