Abstract: The present invention relates to peptides or pretide derivatives of the 65kD lower matrix phosphoprotein of human cytomegalovirus. The peptides disclosed are useful for determining whether subjects have een exposed to human cytomegalovirus. Methods for using these peptides or derivatives thereof to determine the peptide-induced production of interferon-? and/or TNF-? in CD8+ T cells isolated from subjects are also disclosed.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method for the antigen-specific stimulation of T-lymphocytes with a synthetic peptide library, by preparing a plurality of peptides, each of said peptides comprising a fragment less than the whole of the total amino acid sequence of the antigen, each of said peptides being a minimum of 9 amino acid residues (AAs) in length, and the amino acid sequence of each peptide overlapping with the amino acid sequence of at least one other of said peptides; combining a plurality of the peptides from a) into a peptide library, said peptide library comprises a plurality of the peptides selected such that their collective overlapping amino acid sequences span the total amino acid sequence of the antigen; and incubating a suspension comprising CD8+ T lymphocytes, CD4+ T lymphocytes or a mixture of CD8+ and CD4+ with said peptide library in a single culture run.

Abstract: The present invention relates to peptides or pretide derivatives of the 65 kD lower matrix phosphoprotein of human cytomegalovirus. The peptides disclosed are useful for determining whether subjects have een exposed to human cytomegalovirus. Methods for using these peptides or derivatives thereof to determine the peptide-induced production of interferon-? and/or TNF-? in CD8+ T cells isolated from subjects are also disclosed.

Abstract: The present invention relates to peptides or peptide derivatives of the 65 kD lower matrix phoshpoprotein of human cytomegalovirus. The peptides disclosed are useful for determining whether subjects have been exposed to human cytomegalovirus. Methods for using these peptides or derivatives thereof to determine the peptide-induced production of interferon-? and/or TNF-? in CD8+ T cells isolated from subjects are also disclosed.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method for the antigen-specific stimulation of T-lymphocytes with synthetic peptide libraries, comprising the following steps: a) dividing the whole amino acid sequence of the antigen into protein fragments with partial amino acid sequences: b) synthesising a peptide library containing these protein fragments: c) incubating a suspension containing CD8− and/or CD4− T-lymphocytes with all of the protein fragments of the peptide library in a single culture batch. The method can be used for immunostimulation of T-lymphocytes of mammals, especially humans, as well as for diagnosis purposes, in order to determine whether a mammal, especially a human being, has previously responded to a specific protein with its/his/her immune system, and the strength of this response.