Cañas Arranz, Rodrigode León, PatriciaForner, Mar, 1980-Defaus, SiraBustos, María J.Torres, ElisaAndreu Martínez, DavidBlanco, EstherSobrino, Francisco2020-10-072020-10-072020Cañas-Arranz R, de León P, Forner M, Defaus S, Bustos MJ, Torres E, Andreu D, Blanco E, Sobrino F. Immunogenicity of a dendrimer B 2 T peptide harboring a T-cell epitope from FMDV non-structural protein 3D. Front Vet Sci. 2020; 7:498. DOI: 10.3389/fvets.2020.004982297-1769http://hdl.handle.net/10230/45410Synthetic dendrimer peptides are a promising strategy to develop new FMD vaccines. A dendrimer peptide, termed B2T-3A, which harbors two copies of the major FMDV antigenic B-cell site [VP1 (140-158)], covalently linked to a heterotypic T-cell from the non-structural protein 3A [3A (21-35)], has been shown to protect pigs against viral challenge. Interestingly, the modular design of this dendrimer peptide allows modifications aimed at improving its immunogenicity, such as the replacement of the T-cell epitope moiety. Here, we report that a dendrimer peptide, B2T-3D, harboring a T-cell epitope from FMDV 3D protein [3D (56-70)], when inoculated in pigs, elicited consistent levels of neutralizing antibodies and high frequencies of IFN-γ-producing cells upon in vitro recall with the homologous dendrimers, both responses being similar to those evoked by B2T-3A. Lymphocytes from B2T-3A-immunized pigs were in vitro-stimulated by T-3A peptide and to a lesser extent by B-peptide, while those from B2T-3D- immunized animals preferentially recognized the T-3D peptide, suggesting that this epitope is a potent inducer of IFN-γ producing-cells. These results extend the repertoire of T-cell epitopes efficiently recognized by swine lymphocytes and open the possibility of using T-3D to enhance the immunogenicity and the protection conferred by B2T-dendrimers.application/pdfeng© 2020 Cañas-Arranz, de León, Forner, Defaus, Bustos, Torres, Andreu, Blanco and Sobrino. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2020.00498FMDVT-cell epitopesdendrimer peptidesSwineVaccinesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess