scholarly journals Proliferative Capacity of Epitope-Specific CD8 T-Cell Responses Is Inversely Related to Viral Load in Chronic Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection

2006 ◽  
Vol 81 (1) ◽  
pp. 434-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl L. Day ◽  
Photini Kiepiela ◽  
Alasdair J. Leslie ◽  
Mary van der Stok ◽  
Kriebashne Nair ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The relationship between the function of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-specific CD8 T-cell responses and viral load has not been defined. In this study, we used a panel of major histocompatibility complex class I tetramers to examine responses to frequently targeted CD8 T-cell epitopes in a large cohort of antiretroviral-therapy-naïve HIV type 1 clade C virus-infected persons in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. In terms of effector functions of proliferation, cytokine production, and degranulation, only proliferation showed a significant correlation with viral load. This robust inverse relationship provides an important functional correlate of viral control relevant to both vaccine design and evaluation.

2007 ◽  
Vol 81 (24) ◽  
pp. 13809-13815 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christof Geldmacher ◽  
Clive Gray ◽  
Martha Nason ◽  
Jeffrey R. Currier ◽  
Antelmo Haule ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-specific CD8 T-cell responses targeting products encoded within the Gag open reading frame have frequently been associated with better viral control and disease outcome during the chronic phase of HIV infection. To further clarify this relationship, we have studied the dynamics of Gag-specific CD8 T-cell responses in relation to plasma viral load and time since infection in 33 chronically infected subjects over a 9-month period. High baseline viral loads were associated with a net loss of breadth (P < 0.001) and a decrease in the total magnitude of the Gag-specific T-cell response in general (P = 0.03). Most importantly, the baseline viral load predicted the subsequent change in the breadth of Gag recognition over time (P < 0.0001, r 2 = 0.41). Compared to maintained responses, lost responses were low in magnitude (P < 0.0001) and subdominant in the hierarchy of Gag-specific responses. The present study indicates that chronic exposure of the human immune system to high levels of HIV viremia is a determinant of virus-specific CD8 T-cell loss.


2004 ◽  
Vol 78 (7) ◽  
pp. 3233-3243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agatha Masemola ◽  
Tumelo Mashishi ◽  
Greg Khoury ◽  
Phineas Mohube ◽  
Pauline Mokgotho ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT An understanding of the relationship between the breadth and magnitude of T-cell epitope responses and viral loads is important for the design of effective vaccines. For this study, we screened a cohort of 46 subtype C human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-infected individuals for T-cell responses against a panel of peptides corresponding to the complete subtype C genome. We used a gamma interferon ELISPOT assay to explore the hypothesis that patterns of T-cell responses across the expressed HIV-1 genome correlate with viral control. The estimated median time from seroconversion to response for the cohort was 13 months, and the order of cumulative T-cell responses against HIV proteins was as follows: Nef > Gag > Pol > Env > Vif > Rev > Vpr > Tat > Vpu. Nef was the most intensely targeted protein, with 97.5% of the epitopes being clustered within 119 amino acids, constituting almost one-third of the responses across the expressed genome. The second most targeted region was p24, comprising 17% of the responses. There was no correlation between viral load and the breadth of responses, but there was a weak positive correlation (r = 0.297; P = 0.034) between viral load and the total magnitude of responses, implying that the magnitude of T-cell recognition did not contribute to viral control. When hierarchical patterns of recognition were correlated with the viral load, preferential targeting of Gag was significantly (r = 0.445; P = 0.0025) associated with viral control. These data suggest that preferential targeting of Gag epitopes, rather than the breadth or magnitude of the response across the genome, may be an important marker of immune efficacy. These data have significance for the design of vaccines and for interpretation of vaccine-induced responses.


2002 ◽  
Vol 76 (5) ◽  
pp. 2298-2305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley H. Edwards ◽  
Anju Bansal ◽  
Steffanie Sabbaj ◽  
Janna Bakari ◽  
Mark J. Mulligan ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The importance of CD8+ T-cell responses in the control of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection has been demonstrated, yet few studies have been able to correlate these responses with markers of HIV-1 disease progression. This study measured cell-mediated immune responses using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) obtained from 27 patients with chronic HIV-1 infection, the majority of whom were off antiretroviral therapy. The ELISPOT assay was used to detect gamma interferon-secreting PBMC after stimulation with overlapping HIV-1 peptides spanning the Gag, Pol, Env, and Nef proteins in addition to the baculovirus-derived p24 and gp160 proteins. All volunteers had responses to at least one HIV-1-specific peptide. All but one of the subjects (96%) responded to the Gag peptide pool, and 86% responded to the Pol and/or Nef peptide pools. The magnitude and the breadth of T-cell responses directed to either the Gag or p24 peptide pools correlated inversely with viral load in plasma (r = −0.60, P < 0.001 and r = −0.52, P < 0.005, respectively) and directly with absolute CD4+ T-cell counts (r = 0.54, P < 0.01 and r = 0.39, P < 0.05, respectively) using the Spearman rank correlation test. Responses to the Pol and integrase peptide pools also correlated with absolute CD4+ T-cell counts (r = 0.45, P < 0.05 and r = 0.49, P < 0.01, respectively). No correlation with markers of disease progression was seen with specific T-cell responses directed toward the Env or Nef peptides. These data serve as strong evidence that major histocompatibility complex class I presentation of Gag peptides is an essential feature for any HIV-1 vaccine designed to elicit optimal CD8+ T-cell responses.


2003 ◽  
Vol 77 (20) ◽  
pp. 11220-11231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanne Gahéry-Ségard ◽  
Gilles Pialoux ◽  
Suzanne Figueiredo ◽  
Céline Igéa ◽  
Mathieu Surenaud ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We studied the effect of booster injections and the long-term immune response after injections of an anti-human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) lipopeptide vaccine. This vaccine was injected alone or with QS21 adjuvant to 28 HIV-uninfected volunteers. One month later, after a fourth injection of the vaccine, B- and T-cell anti-HIV responses were detected in >85% of the vaccinated volunteers. One year after this injection, a long-term immune response was observed in >50% of the volunteers. At this point, a positive QS21 effect was observed only in the sustained B-cell and CD4+-T-cell responses. To better characterize the CD8+-T-cell response, we used a gamma interferon enzyme-linked immunospot method and a bank of 59 HIV-1 epitopes. For the six most common HLA molecules (HLA-A2, -A3, -A11, -A24, -B7 superfamily, and -B8), an average of 10 (range, 3 to 15) HIV-1 epitopes were tested. CD8+-T-cell responses were evaluated according to the HLA class I molecules of the volunteers. Each assessment was based on 18 HIV-1 epitopes in average. We showed that 31 HIV-1 epitopes elicited specific CD8+-T-cell responses after vaccination. The most frequently recognized peptides were Nef 68-76 (-B7), Nef 71-79 (-B7), Nef 84-92 (-A11), Nef 135-143 (-B7), Nef 136-145 (-A2), Nef 137-145 (-A2), Gag 259-267 (-B8), Gag 260-268 (-A2), Gag 267-274 (-A2), Gag 267-277 (-B7), and Gag 276-283 (A24). We found that CD8+-T-cell epitopes were induced at a higher number after a fourth injection (P < 0.05 compared to three injections), which indicates an increase in the breadth of HIV CD8+-T-cell epitope recognition after the boost.


2007 ◽  
Vol 81 (16) ◽  
pp. 8838-8842 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shailesh K. Choudhary ◽  
Nienke Vrisekoop ◽  
Christine A. Jansen ◽  
Sigrid A. Otto ◽  
Hanneke Schuitemaker ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Long-term asymptomatic human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individuals (LTA) usually have low viral load and low immune activation. To discern whether viral load or immune activation is dominant in determining progression to AIDS, we studied three exceptional LTA with high viral loads. HIV type 1 isolates from these LTA were as pathogenic as viruses from progressors in organ culture. Despite high viral loads, these LTA had low levels of proliferating and activated T cells compared to progressors, like other LTA. In contrast to those in progressors, HIV-specific CD4+ T-cell responses in these LTA were maintained. Thus, low immune activation despite a high viral load preserved HIV-specific T-cell responses and resulted in a long-term asymptomatic phenotype.


2019 ◽  
Vol 220 (10) ◽  
pp. 1620-1628 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sushma Boppana ◽  
Sarah Sterrett ◽  
Jacob Files ◽  
Kai Qin ◽  
Andrew Fiore-Gartland ◽  
...  

Abstract HLA-I–associated human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) adaptation is known to negatively affect disease progression and CD8 T-cell responses. We aimed to assess how HLA-I–associated adaptation affects HIV vaccine–induced CD8 T-cell responses in 2 past vaccine efficacy trials. We found that vaccine-encoded adapted epitopes were less immunogenic than vaccine-encoded nonadapted epitopes, and adapted epitope-specific responses were less polyfunctional than nonadapted epitope-specific responses. Along those lines, vaccine recipients with higher HLA-I adaptation to the Gag vaccine insert mounted less polyfunctional CD8 T-cell responses at the protein level. Breadth of response, which correlated with viral control in recipients who became infected, is also dampened by HLA-I adaptation. These findings suggest that HLA-I–associated adaptation is an important consideration for strategies aiming to induce robust CD8 T-cell responses.


2003 ◽  
Vol 77 (13) ◽  
pp. 7330-7340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Altfeld ◽  
Marylyn M. Addo ◽  
Raj Shankarappa ◽  
Paul K. Lee ◽  
Todd M. Allen ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The antigenic diversity of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) represents a significant challenge for vaccine design as well as the comprehensive assessment of HIV-1-specific immune responses in infected persons. In this study we assessed the impact of antigen variability on the characterization of HIV-1-specific T-cell responses by using an HIV-1 database to determine the sequence variability at each position in all expressed HIV-1 proteins and a comprehensive data set of CD8 T-cell responses to a reference strain of HIV-1 in infected persons. Gamma interferon Elispot analysis of HIV-1 clade B-specific T-cell responses to 504 overlapping peptides spanning the entire expressed HIV-1 genome derived from 57 infected subjects demonstrated that the average amino acid variability within a peptide (entropy) was inversely correlated to the measured frequency at which the peptide was recognized (P = 6 × 10−7). Subsequent studies in six persons to assess T-cell responses against p24 Gag, Tat, and Vpr peptides based on autologous virus sequences demonstrated that 29% (12 of 42) of targeted peptides were only detected with peptides representing the autologous virus strain compared to the HIV-1 clade B consensus sequence. The use of autologous peptides also allowed the detection of significantly stronger HIV-1-specific T-cell responses in the more variable regulatory and accessory HIV-1 proteins Tat and Vpr (P = 0.007). Taken together, these data indicate that accurate assessment of T-cell responses directed against the more variable regulatory and accessory HIV-1 proteins requires reagents based on autologous virus sequences. They also demonstrate that CD8 T-cell responses to the variable HIV-1 proteins are more common than previously reported.


2009 ◽  
Vol 90 (10) ◽  
pp. 2513-2518 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine S. Siegismund ◽  
Oliver Hohn ◽  
Reinhard Kurth ◽  
Stephen Norley

As a prelude to primate studies, the immunogenicity of wild-type and codon-optimized versions of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)agm Gag DNA, with and without co-administered granulocyte–macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) DNA, was directly compared in two strains of mice. Gag-specific T cells in the splenocytes of BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice immunized by gene gun were quantified by ELISpot using panels of overlapping synthetic peptides (15mers) spanning the entire capsid proteins of SIVagm, SIVmac and human immunodeficiency virus type 1. Specific antibodies were measured by ELISA. Codon optimization was shown to significantly increase the immune response to the DNA immunogens, reducing the amount of DNA necessary to induce cellular and antibody responses by one and two orders of magnitude, respectively. Co-administration of murine GM-CSF DNA was necessary for the induction of high level T- and B-cell responses. Finally, it was possible to identify both known and novel T-cell epitopes in the Gag proteins of the three viruses.


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