Identification of novel HLA-A2-restricted human immunodeficiency virus type 1-specific cytotoxic T-lymphocyte epitopes predicted by the HLA-A2 supertype peptide-binding motif

J Virol. 2001 Feb;75(3):1301-11. doi: 10.1128/JVI.75.3.1301-1311.2001.

Abstract

Virus-specific cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) responses are critical in the control of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection and will play an important part in therapeutic and prophylactic HIV-1 vaccines. The identification of virus-specific epitopes that are efficiently recognized by CTL is the first step in the development of future vaccines. Here we describe the immunological characterization of a number of novel HIV-1-specific, HLA-A2-restricted CTL epitopes that share a high degree of conservation within HIV-1 and a strong binding to different alleles of the HLA-A2 superfamily. These novel epitopes include the first reported CTL epitope in the Vpr protein. Two of the novel epitopes were immunodominant among the HLA-A2-restricted CTL responses of individuals with acute and chronic HIV-1 infection. The novel CTL epitopes identified here should be included in future vaccines designed to induce HIV-1-specific CTL responses restricted by the HLA-A2 superfamily and will be important to assess in immunogenicity studies in infected persons and in uninfected recipients of candidate HIV-1 vaccines.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / immunology
  • Binding Sites
  • Cell Line
  • Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte*
  • Gene Products, vpr / immunology
  • HIV-1 / immunology*
  • HLA-A2 Antigen / physiology*
  • Humans
  • T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / immunology*
  • vpr Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus

Substances

  • Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte
  • Gene Products, vpr
  • HLA-A2 Antigen
  • vpr Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus