Identification of CD4⁺ T cell epitopes of Taenia solium paramyosin

T cell mediated response is involved in a protective immune response against experimental cysticercosis conferred by immunization with Taenia solium paramyosin (TPmy) to BALB/c mice. In this study, we analysed the TPmy amino acid sequence for predicted CD4⁺ T cells epitopes. Five different regions of this protein showed that the residues anchor to bind the I-A ^d molecule; synthetic peptides containing these epitopes were evaluated for their ability to induce lymphoproliferative responses of spleen cells from TPmy immunized mice. Among them, Tp176 (amino acids 176-192 sequence DDLQRQMADANSAKSRL) was the immunodominant T cell epitope of TPmy. Delineation of this epitope should facilitate analysis of the role of CD4⁺ T cell response in experimental cysticercosis.