Discovery of common marburgvirus protective epitopes in a BALB/c mouse model | Virology Journal BioMed Central Open Access Discovery of common marburgvirus protective epitopes in a BALB c mouse model Warren V Kalina1 2 Kelly L Warfield1 3 Gene G Olinger4 and Sina Bavari 1 Address 1Division of Bacteriology United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases Fort Detrick Fort Detrick Maryland 21702 USA 2National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center Frederick MD 21702 USA integrated Biotherapeutics Inc. 20358 Seneca Meadows Parkway Germantown MD 20876 USA and 4Division of Virology United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases Fort Detrick Fort Detrick Maryland 21702 USA Email Warren V Kalina - Kelly L Warfield - kelly@ Gene G Sina Bavari - Corresponding author Published 27 August 2009 Received 27 May 2008 Accepted 27 August 2009 Virologyjournal 2009 6 132 doi 1743-422X-6-132 This article is available from http content 6 1 132 2009 Kalina et al licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http licenses by which permits unrestricted use distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background Marburg virus MARV causes acute hemorrhagic fever that is often lethal and no licensed vaccines are available for preventing this deadly viral infection. The immune mechanisms for protection against MARV are poorly understood but previous studies suggest that both antibodies and T cells are required. In our study we infected BALB c mice with plaque-purified nonlethal MARV and used overlapping peptides to map H2d-restricted CD8 T-cell epitopes. Methods Splenocytes from mice infected with nonlethal MARV were harvested and stimulated with multiple overlapping 15-mer peptide pools and reactive CD8 T cells .
