The CD4+ T-cell response to adenovirus is focused against conserved residues within the hexon protein Onion, David and Crompton, Laura J. and Milligan, Donald W. and Moss, Paul A. H. and Lee, Steven P. and Mautner, Vivien,, 88, 2417-2425 (2007), doi = https://doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.82867-0, publicationName = Microbiology Society, issn = 0022-1317, abstract= Adenovirus is a significant pathogen in immunocompromised patients and is widely utilized as a gene delivery vector, so a detailed understanding of the human immune response to adenovirus infection is critical. This study characterized the adenovirus-specific CD4+ T-cell response of healthy donors by incubation with whole virus or with individual hexon and fiber proteins. Adenovirus-specific CD4+ T cells averaged 0.26 % of the CD4+ T-cell pool and were detectable in all donors. T cells recognizing the highly conserved hexon protein accounted for 0.09 %, whereas no response was observed against the fiber protein. A panel of hexon-specific CD4+ T-cell clones was generated and shown to lyse targets infected with adenovirus from different serotypes and species. Three CD4 T-cell epitopes are described, which map to highly conserved regions of the hexon protein., language=, type=