@ARTICLE{10.3389/fimmu.2019.01424, AUTHOR={Roth, Claude and Cantaert, Tineke and Colas, Chloé and Prot, Matthieu and Casadémont, Isabelle and Levillayer, Laurine and Thalmensi, Jessie and Langlade-Demoyen, Pierre and Gerke, Christiane and Bahl, Kapil and Ciaramella, Giuseppe and Simon-Loriere, Etienne and Sakuntabhai, Anavaj}, TITLE={A Modified mRNA Vaccine Targeting Immunodominant NS Epitopes Protects Against Dengue Virus Infection in HLA Class I Transgenic Mice}, JOURNAL={Frontiers in Immunology}, VOLUME={10}, YEAR={2019}, URL={https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2019.01424}, DOI={10.3389/fimmu.2019.01424}, ISSN={1664-3224}, ABSTRACT={Dengue virus (DENV) induces strong T and B cell responses upon infection. Hence, it is difficult to determine the contribution of cell-mediated immunity alone in the long lasting protection against DENV infection and disease. Numerous CD4+ and CD8+ T cell epitopes have been identified, mainly in the non-structural proteins of DENV. Taking into account the immunogenicity and peptide sequence conservation among the different DENV serotypes, a minimal DENV antigen, called DENV1-NS, has been designed. This antigen is enriched in conserved and highly antigenic epitopes located in the NS3, NS4B, and NS5 regions of DENV1. To evaluate the ability of the DENV1-NS poly-epitope to express the antigenic peptides in the context of different HLA class I molecules, we established its in vivo immunogenicity by measuring, after DNA immunization and electroporation, the activation of DENV-specific CD8 T cells in transgenic mice expressing the human HLA-A*0201, -A*2402, -B*0702, and -B*3502 class I alleles. We then engineered a lipid nanoparticle (LNP) encapsulated modified mRNA vaccine encoding DENV1-NS and tested immunogenicity and protection in these human HLA class I transgenic mice, after transient blockade of the interferon (IFN) type I receptor. Significant protection was observed, after two injections of the mRNA vaccine. Collectively, these data strongly support the development of T cell-based vaccines targeting immunodominant T cell epitopes that generate potent virus-specific T cell responses conferring immunity against DENV infection.} }