Antisense-Derived HIV-1 Cryptic Epitopes Are Not Major Drivers of Viral Evolution during the Acute Phase of Infection.
Abstract
While prior studies have demonstrated that CD8 T cell responses to cryptic epitopes (CE) are readily detectable during HIV-1 infection, their ability to drive escape mutations following acute infection is unknown. We predicted 66 CE in a Zambian acute infection cohort based on escape mutations occurring within or near the putatively predicted HLA-I-restricted epitopes. The CE were evaluated for CD8 T cell responses for patients with chronic and acute HIV infections. Of the 66 predicted CE, 10 were recognized in 8/32 and 4/11 patients with chronic and acute infections, respectively. The immunogenic CE were all derived from a single antisense reading frame within pol However, when these CE were tested using longitudinal study samples, CE-specific T cell responses were detected but did not consistently select for viral escape mutations. Thus, while we demonstrated that CE are immunogenic in acute infection, the immune responses to CE are not major drivers of viral escape in the initial stages of HIV infection. The latter finding may be due to either the subdominant nature of CE-specific responses, the low antigen sensitivity, or the magnitude of CE responses during acute infections.IMPORTANCE Although prior studies demonstrated th...Continue Reading
References
Transcriptional errors in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 generate targets for T-cell responses.
Influence of HAART on alternative reading frame immune responses over the course of HIV-1 infection.
Related Concepts
Related Feeds
Antigenic Modulation
Antigenic modulation occurs when an antibody cross-links antigens on a cell surface, causing the antigens to become internalized. This can lead to therapeutic failure of monoclonal antibodies as the expression of the antigen becomes decreased on target cells. Find the latest research on antigenic modulation here.