Cross-reactive potential of human T-lymphocyte responses in HIV-1 infection

Vaccine. 2014 Jun 30;32(31):3995-4000. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2014.04.040. Epub 2014 May 14.

Abstract

An effective HIV-1 vaccine should elicit sufficient breadth of immune recognition to protect against the genetically diverse forms of the circulating virus. Evaluation of the breadth and magnitude of cellular immune responses to epitope variants is important for HIV-1 vaccine assessment. We compared HIV-1 Gag-specific T-lymphocyte responses in 20 HIV-1-infected individuals representing two different HIV-1 subtypes, B and C. By assessing T lymphocyte responses with peptides based on natural HIV-1 variants, we found evidence for limited cross-reactivity and significantly enhanced within-clade responses among clade B-infected subjects, and not among clade C-infected subjects.

Keywords: Cross-clade response; HIV-1; T lymphocyte.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Cross Reactions
  • Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte / immunology
  • HIV Infections / immunology*
  • HIV-1 / classification*
  • Humans
  • T-Lymphocytes / immunology*
  • gag Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus / immunology*

Substances

  • Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte
  • gag Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus