Multispecific and heterogeneous recognition of the gag protein by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) from HIV-infected patients: factors other than the MHC control the epitopic specificities

Abstract

SUMMARY The HIV gag polyprotein is a major target for recognition by CTL in infected humans. Using recombinant vaccinia viruses (rVV) expressing truncations of the p24gag, and the p18gag, p15gagand HIV-2 p56gag proteins, the characterization of epitope regions recognized by in vitro-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear ceils (PBMC) from 18 infected patients has been studied. The gag-specific response of most individuals is polyclonal and multispecific, and inter-individual variations between target epitope regions were frequently observed, despite shared MHC alleles. As CTL may play an important role in the control of HIV replication in infected hosts, these results have important implications for designing vaccine strategies.