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In this study, a panel of 55 synthetic peptides representing 92.2% of the haemagglutinin (H) glycoprotein of measles virus (MV) were used to study the antigenic profile of the H molecule of anti-MV antibodies raised in mice and late convalescent human sera. In addition the immunogenicity of these peptides was tested in two mouse strains. Mouse anti-MV antibodies had different fine specificity of binding to the peptides depending on the mouse strain. Thus in BALB/c (H-2 d ) mice, anti-MV antibodies recognised six peptides representing residues 103–117; 123–137; 242–255; 293–307 and 463–477. In TO (H-2 s ) mice, anti-MV antibodies recognised peptides representing residues 49–72 and 463–477. When the immunogenicity of the peptides was tested, 29 were immunogenic in BALB/c mice and 34 were immunogenic in TO mice. Several of the anti-peptide antisera were found to cross-react with MV, depending on the solid phase assay system used but none were able to inhibit virus infectivity in vitro. The reactivity of a panel of late convalescent human sera with the peptides was heterogeneous and the extent of the binding to the peptides was related to the titre of anti-MV. However, human sera recognized certain peptides more frequently than others, in particular peptides at the carboxyl-terminus.

Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) responses to measles virus (MV) play an important role in recovery from infection, with one of the major target proteins for CTL activity being the nucleoprotein (Np). In this report, a replication-deficient adenovirus-5 recombinant, expressing for MV Np (Rad68) was tested for in vivo priming of MV Np-specific CTL responses in BALB/c and CBA mice. In both strains of mice strong Np-specific CTL responses were induced and these responses were shown to be MHC class I restricted. Using overlapping 15mer peptides spanning residues 1-505 of MV Np a single epitope comprising residues 281-295 was identified in BALB/c mice whereas, in CBA mice two epitopes comprising residues 51-65 and 81-95, were identified. These epitopes were found to contain class I motifs for H-2L(d) and H-2K(k) MHC molecules, respectively. Immunization of BALB/c and CBA mice with the respective CTL epitopes resulted in the in vivo induction of peptide-and MV Np-specific CTL responses. In addition, the identified H-2K(k) restricted CTL epitopes conferred some protection against encephalitis induced following intracerebral challenge with a lethal dose of canine distemper virus (the Np of which shares 70% sequence homology with MV Np). These findings highlight the potential of using well-defined CTL epitopes to control virus infection.