Heterogeneity of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses to cytomegalovirus in HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected men who have sex with men

Abstract

Studies of T-cell immunity to human cytomegalovirus (CMV) primarily reflect anti-CMV pp65 or immediate early antigen 1 (IE-1) activity. We assessed responses of T cells from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-negative and HIV-infected men to peptide pools spanning 19 CMV open reading frames selected because they previously correlated with total CMV-specific T-cell responses in healthy donors. Cells producing cytokines in response to pp65 or IE-1 together composed <12% and <40% of the total CD4(+) and CD8(+) T-cell responses to CMV, respectively. These proportions were generally similar regardless of HIV serostatus. Thus, analyses of total CMV-specific T-cell responses should extend beyond pp65 and IE-1 regardless of HIV serostatus.

Keywords: CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses; CMV; HIV infection; IE-1; IFN-γ; IL-2; MACS; TNF-α; intracellular cytokine staining; pp65.