Affiliation:
1. Department of Paediatrics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
2. Department of Biotechnology, National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi, India
Abstract
Few studies have addressed the mechanisms of immune control in HIV-infected subjects in India, where an estimated 2.7 million people are living with HIV. We focus here on a study cohort in Delhi on one of the most prevalent HLA-B alleles, HLA-B*52:01, present in 22.5% of infected individuals. HLA-B*52:01 has consistently been shown in other cohorts to be associated with protection against HIV disease progression, but studies have been limited by the low prevalence of this allele in North America and Europe. Among the C-clade-infected individuals, we show that HLA-B*52:01 is the most protective of all the HLA-B alleles expressed in the Indian cohort and is associated with the highest absolute CD4 counts. Further, we show that the mechanism by which HLA-B*52:01 mediates immune protection is, at least in part, related to the inability of HIV to evade the HLA-B*52:01-restricted p24 Gag-specific CD8
+
T-cell response without incurring a significant loss to viral replicative capacity.
Funder
HHS | NIH | NIH Clinical Center
Wellcome Trust
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Virology,Insect Science,Immunology,Microbiology