Inter-Clade Cross-Reactivity of HIV-1-Specific T Cell Responses in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection in China

Title: Inter-Clade Cross-Reactivity of HIV-1-Specific T Cell Responses in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection in China

Volume: 5 Issue: 2

Author(s): Shuguang Zhao, Song Zhai, Yan Zhuang, Shaoyang Wang, Dedong Huang, Whenzhen Kang, Xinhong Li, Xu G. Yu, Bruce D. Walker, Marcus A. Altfeld and Yongtao Sun

Affiliation:

Keywords: HIV-1, CD8 T cell response, Inter-clade cross-reactivity

Abstract: To determine the degree of HIV-1-specific cytotoxic-T-lymphocyte (CTL) cross-responses to the clade B and C consensus sequences at the single peptide level. We assessed CTL responses in 46 HIV-1 clade B chronically infected individuals using an interferon-γ Elispot assay with a total of 826 overlapping peptides spanning HIV-1clade B and C consensus sequences. In general, 583 peptides were recognized by HIV-1-specific T cells in the study subjects (292 clade B, 291 clade C respectively), of which 204 peptides in both clades were recognized simultaneously. The HIV-1-specific CTL responses to both clade peptides contributed 54.23% (954/1759) to the total responses. No significant difference was observed between the overall magnitude or frequency of CTL responses to clade B proteins and those to clade C proteins. According to the profiles of CTL magnitude and CTL frequency, the top 44 and 35 synthetic peptides were identified as immunodominant regions in the clade B and C consensus sequences respectively and 27 corresponding peptides in two immunodominant regions were cross-reactive. These peptides with cross-reactivity had a significantly higher ability to elicit CTL responses (P < 0.01) and preferentially had a trend of lower entropy and higher inter-clade homology. A wide degree of cross-clade reactivity of HIV-1-specific T cells exist in clade B and clade C variants. Most of immunodominant peptides with cross-reactivity are vigorous to elicit CTL responses and preferentially be conservative. This result may make future HIV-1 vaccines including multiple copies of CTL epitopes in these immunodominant peptides effective for this population.

Cite this article as:

Zhao Shuguang, Zhai Song, Zhuang Yan, Wang Shaoyang, Huang Dedong, Kang Whenzhen, Li Xinhong, Yu G. Xu, Walker D. Bruce, Altfeld A. Marcus and Sun Yongtao, Inter-Clade Cross-Reactivity of HIV-1-Specific T Cell Responses in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection in China, Current HIV Research 2007; 5 (2) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/157016207780076995