• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: The Antiviral Efficacy of Simian Immunodeficiency Virus-Specific CD8 + T Cells Is Unrelated to Epitope Specificity and Is Abrogated by Viral Escape
  • Contributor: Loffredo, John T.; Burwitz, Benjamin J.; Rakasz, Eva G.; Spencer, Sean P.; Stephany, Jason J.; Giraldo Vela, Juan Pablo; Martin, Sarah R.; Reed, Jason; Piaskowski, Shari M.; Furlott, Jessica; Weisgrau, Kim L.; Rodrigues, Denise S.; Soma, Taeko; Napoé, Gnankang; Friedrich, Thomas C.; Wilson, Nancy A.; Kallas, Esper G.; Watkins, David I.
  • Published: American Society for Microbiology, 2007
  • Published in: Journal of Virology, 81 (2007) 6, Seite 2624-2634
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1128/jvi.01912-06
  • ISSN: 0022-538X; 1098-5514
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: ABSTRACT CD8 + T lymphocytes appear to play a role in controlling human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) replication, yet routine immunological assays do not measure the antiviral efficacy of these cells. Furthermore, it has been suggested that CD8 + T cells that recognize epitopes derived from proteins expressed early in the viral replication cycle can be highly efficient. We used a functional in vitro assay to assess the abilities of different epitope-specific CD8 + T-cell lines to control simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) replication. We compared the antiviral efficacies of 26 epitope-specific CD8 + T-cell lines directed against seven SIV epitopes in Tat, Nef, Gag, Env, and Vif that were restricted by either Mamu-A*01 or Mamu-A*02. Suppression of SIV replication varied depending on the epitope specificities of the CD8 + T cells and was unrelated to whether the targeted epitope was derived from an early or late viral protein. Tat 28-35 SL8- and Gag 181-189 CM9-specific CD8 + T-cell lines were consistently superior at suppressing viral replication compared to the other five SIV-specific CD8 + T-cell lines. We also investigated the impact of viral escape on antiviral efficacy by determining if Tat 28-35 SL8- and Gag 181-189 CM9-specific CD8 + T-cell lines could suppress the replication of an escaped virus. Viral escape abrogated the abilities of Tat 28-35 SL8- and Gag 181-189 CM9-specific CD8 + T cells to control viral replication. However, gamma interferon (IFN-γ) enzyme-linked immunospot and IFN-γ/tumor necrosis factor alpha intracellular-cytokine-staining assays detected cross-reactive immune responses against the Gag escape variant. Understanding antiviral efficacy and epitope variability, therefore, will be important in selecting candidate epitopes for an HIV vaccine.
  • Access State: Open Access