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Journal of Virology, May 2001, p. 4941-4946, Vol. 75, No. 10
Laboratoire d'Immunopathologie Virale, URA
CNRS 1930, Institut Pasteur,1 and
Laboratoire de Virologie,2 and
Fédération de
Pédiatrie,3 Hôpital Necker-Enfants
Malades, 75015 Paris, France
Received 29 December 2000/Accepted 27 February 2001
We tested seven human immunodeficiency virus-infected children for
their cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) activities towards the p24gag QASQEVKNW epitope and its
nine variant sequences. Our data confirm that most, but not all, CTL
responses are broadly cross-specific. For the first time, we show the
high interpatient variability in cross-recognition of mutant CTL
epitopes. These interindividual variations in the CTL response to
the same epitope should be taken into account in the design and the
evaluation of vaccines.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
infection is a major public health problem, in particular in developing
countries. Therefore, a vaccine against this virus is urgently needed
to reduce the propagation of the epidemic. The contribution of
cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) in controlling HIV replication in
infected hosts has been well demonstrated, though they do not eradicate
the virus (15, 16). Meanwhile, vaccine studies in animal
models have shown that preexisting CTL can reduce viral load during
primary infection and eventually slow the progression of the disease
(15, 18). An important issue for vaccine development is
the antigenic diversity among different HIV isolates. In 1992, comparison of genetic sequences from various HIV strains led to the
definition of HIV type 1 (HIV-1) subtypes. Since then, the number of
known HIV-1 subtypes has been growing (21, 22). In order
to confer protection against most field isolates, immunogens able to
induce broadly cross-reactive CTL are required. In 1998, we showed that
HIV-specific CTL responses from children infected with various HIV
subtypes were mostly cross-reactive against two HIV clades
(5). At the same time, several other studies on vaccinated
or HIV-infected persons reached the same conclusion (1, 8, 11,
12, 19, 20, 28).
These previous studies described the cross-recognition of full-length
HIV proteins by bulk CTL from genetically diverse populations exposed
to different strains of HIV. They gave an appropriate evaluation of
cross-reactive CTL, at the level of the infected patient and at the
level of the population infected by various HIV subtypes. This approach
is worthy for estimation of the level of CTL cross-reactivity that may
be attained in vaccinated populations. However, it may overestimate the
cross-recognition at the level of single CTL epitopes for two main
reasons. First, the CTL response is multispecific, and distinct CTL
populations present in bulk cultures can recognize several CTL
epitopes on the same protein (6, 7). Second, some CTL
epitopes are conserved between several HIV subtypes. As the use of
target cells expressing full-length HIV proteins may have
overestimated the cross-recognition capacities of CTL, we studied the
capacity of CTL to recognize variant sequences of a single epitope.
When cross-recognition of a single epitope has been studied,
reactivity from only one CTL population was reported (8,
10, 20). Here, we tested several CTL lines specific for the same
epitope in order to establish if cross-recognition of variant
epitopes is shared by all CTL or is specific for each CTL
population. We chose the HIV p24gag
epitope, QASQEVKNW, because it is presented in
association with two HLA molecules, HLA-B53 (our results) and
HLA-B57 (14), and because several naturally
occurring variants have been reported (17). We found
that recognition of variant sequences of the CTL epitope was broad,
as the five responders recognized two to nine variant sequences. Most
importantly, we observed that the CTL responses from each
individual differed from the others by the identity of sequences
recognized and by the level of lysis of target cells expressing these sequences.
Recognition of HIV Gag protein and CTL epitope
QASQEVKNW by PBMCs after nonspecific
stimulation.
Seven children included in a longitudinal follow-up
study of their CTL activities were selected for their expression of
HLA-B53 or -B57, as determined by amplification refractory mutation
system PCR (4, 5). Peripheral blood mononuclear cell
(PBMC) samples exhibiting significant lysis against the HIV
p55gag protein were chosen for this study. The
patients were monitored at Hôpital Necker, Paris, France. The
legal guardians gave informed consent before the children entered the
study. Child EM100 was infected through transfusion of a contaminated
blood product. Mother-to-child transmission of HIV was responsible for
infection of the other children. Their infecting subtypes were
determined by heteroduplex mobility assay or sequencing of the Env
gene, as previously reported (5). Patients' clinical and
biological characteristics are summarized in Table
1.
0022-538X/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JVI.75.10.4941-4946.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Patient-Specific Cytotoxic T-Lymphocyte
Cross-Recognition of Naturally Occurring Variants of a Human
Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 (HIV-1) p24gag
Epitope by HIV-1-Infected Children
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TABLE 1.
Characteristics of patients
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Patient-specific patterns of CTL cross-recognition of
QASQEVKNW CTL epitope variants after
stimulation of PBMCs with peptides.
We first used PHA to
stimulate CTL because it will expand all CTL independently of their
specificity. PHA-stimulated PBMCs recognized full-length HIV
p55gag protein, but only one CTL population
recognized the p24gag QASQEVKNW
epitope (Table 2). Therefore, we performed antigen-specific stimulations of the CTL cell lines in order to increase the frequency of CTL specific for the epitope. We chose to use a mix of the 10 variant peptides corresponding to all sequences studied, to avoid
introducing biases in the amplification of CTL specific for a
particular sequence. Previously PHA-stimulated PBMCs were restimulated with autologous Epstein-Barr virus-transformed B cells (EBV-B cells) coated with a mix of the 10 peptides, each at
a final concentration of 1 µg/ml. Before mixing with responding cells
at a ratio of 1:1, EBV-B cells were irradiated at 100 Gy and washed
twice to eliminate unbound peptides. This procedure led to the
detection of lysis of peptide-pulsed target cells for four of the five
HLA-B53-positive patients and one of the two HLA-B57-positive patients
(Table 2). Figure 1 shows the recognition of each variant peptide by the responding CTL cell lines. Patient EM17
had the more focused response, as she recognized only peptides 25-17F
and 25-17M3 (Fig. 1A). Despite being infected with an HIV-1 clade D
isolate, she did not lyse targets pulsed with the consensus clade D
sequence of the epitope. A CTL cell line obtained 4 years later
from this patient had the same specificity for the 25-17F and 25-17M3
sequences (data not shown). Lysis of HIV-p55gag
clade B-expressing target cells (Table 2) was due to immunodominant effectors recognizing the HLA-B44-restricted HIV
p24gag SEGATPQDL epitope (data not shown).
|
Recognition of endogenously synthesized QASQEVKNW CTL
epitope and HLA restriction.
Using a panel of
allogeneic target cells partially matched for some HLA molecules, we
checked that recognition of the epitope was HLA-B53-restricted
for patients EM17 and EM47 (Fig. 2A and B) and HLA-B57-restricted for patient EM3
(Fig. 2C). The four CTL cell lines recognizing peptides 25-17A and -B
(EM23, EM34, EM47, and EM3) also lysed target cells expressing
full-length p55gag clade A and B, indicating
that cross-clade recognition occurred when the epitope was derived
from intracellular synthesis and processing of the viral protein (Table
2). Peptide titration experiments showed that CTL had high affinity for
the epitope. Peptide concentrations giving 50% of maximal lysis
were 0.42 ng of peptide 25-17F/ml for patient EM17, 0.26 ng of peptide
25-17B/ml for patient EM34, and 0.32 ng of peptide 25-17A/ml for
patient EM47.
|
Conclusions. In the present work, we have looked at the recognition of 10 naturally occurring variants of the HIV p24gag QASQEVKNW CTL epitope. The specificity of our approach was to investigate the cross-recognition of variants of a defined CTL epitope by several patients, whereas former studies tested a single CTL population specific for each epitope (8, 10, 20). Thus, our approach shows that the pattern of cross-recognition is dependent on the patients tested, as some patients had a focused response whereas others were broadly cross-reactive (Fig. 1). Most importantly, each patient recognized a distinct set of variants. This interpatient variability in CTL cross-recognition of variant sequences is described for the first time in HIV-infected patients and should be taken into account as a factor that may influence the response to and the efficacy of an HIV vaccine.
Because of the broad cross-clade reactivity of CTL observed in former studies (1, 5, 8, 11, 12, 19, 20, 28), it is believed that vaccines based on a single immunogen will be sufficient to protect against most field isolates. This is true for the most conserved epitopes and if several epitopes are present in the vaccine. The present results corroborate the broad cross-clade reactivity of CTL at the level of a single epitope for the majority of patients studied, though some patients had a more focused CTL response. The actual trend in vaccine strategies is to incorporate additional HIV genes, which have been shown to encode a significant number of determinants recognized by CTL. It is hoped that each of these additional sequences will result both in an added breadth in the CTL response as well as a greater response rate among vaccinees. The patient-specific pattern of CTL cross-recognition observed in the present study strongly supports the use of vaccine strategies designed to induce a polyclonal CTL response, as the response to a defined CTL epitope might differ significantly among individuals.| |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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This work was supported by Institut Pasteur, Agence Nationale de Recherche sur le SIDA, and SIDACTION. Y.R. is an Elisabeth Glaser Scientist.
We thank F. Porrot and B. Corre for the follow-up of CTL activities from children presented in this study and E. Bui for collecting clinical data. Genotyping was performed by F. Gotch at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London, United Kingdom.
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FOOTNOTES |
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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Laboratoire d'Immunopathologie Virale, Département SIDA et Rétrovirus, Institut Pasteur, 28 rue du Dr. Roux, 75015 Paris, France. Phone: 33 1 45 68 88 99. Fax: 33 1 40 61 32 98. E-mail: florence{at}pasteur.fr.
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