PLoS ONE (Apr 2010)

Rapid progressing allele HLA-B35 Px restricted anti-HIV-1 CD8+ T cells recognize vestigial CTL epitopes.

  • Christian B Willberg,
  • Keith E Garrison,
  • R Brad Jones,
  • Duncan A Meiklejohn,
  • Gerald Spotts,
  • Teri J Liegler,
  • Mario A Ostrowski,
  • Annika C Karlsson,
  • Frederick M Hecht,
  • Douglas F Nixon

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010249
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 5, no. 4
p. e10249

Abstract

Read online

The HLA-B*35-Px allele has been associated with rapid disease progression in HIV-1 infection, in contrast to the HLA-B*35-Py allele.Immune responses to two HLA-B*35 restricted HIV-1 specific CTL epitopes and their variants were followed longitudinally during early HIV-1 infection in 16 HLA-B*35+ individuals. Subjects expressing HLA-B*35-Px alleles showed no difference in response to the consensus epitopes compared to individuals with HLA-B*35-Py alleles. Surprisingly, all the HLA-B*35-Px+ individuals responded to epitope-variants even in the absence of a consensus response. Sequencing of the viral population revealed no evidence of variant virus in any of the individuals.This demonstrates a novel phenomenon that distinguishes individuals with the HLA-B*35-Px rapid progressing allele and those with the HLA-B*35-Py slower progressing allele.