Mendiratta Sanjay, Vajpayee Madhu, Malhotra Uma, Kaushik Shweta, Dar Lalit, Mojumdar Kamalika, Chauhan Neeraj Kumar, Sreenivas Vishnubhatla
Department of Microbiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi, 110029, India.
Med Microbiol Immunol. 2009 Feb;198(1):47-56. doi: 10.1007/s00430-008-0104-3. Epub 2008 Nov 5.
Cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses to Gag have been most frequently linked to control of viremia whereas CTL responses to Nef have direct relationship with viral load. IFN-gamma ELISpot assay was used to screen CTL responses at single peptide level directed at HIV-1 subtype C Gag and Nef proteins in 30 antiretroviral therapy naive HIV-1 infected Indian individuals. PBMCs from 73.3% and 90% of the study population showed response to Gag and Nef antigens, respectively. The magnitude of Gag-specific CTL responses was inversely correlated with plasma viral load (r = -0.45, P = 0.001), whereas magnitude of Nef-specific responses was directly correlated (r = 0.115). Thirteen immunodominant regions (6 in Gag, 7 in Nef) were identified in the current study. The identification of Gag and Nef-specific responses across HIV-1 infected Indian population and targeting epitopes from multiple immunodominant regions may provide useful insight into the designing of new immunotherapy and vaccines.
细胞毒性T淋巴细胞（CTL）对Gag的反应最常与病毒血症的控制相关，而CTL对Nef的反应则与病毒载量直接相关。采用干扰素-γ酶联免疫斑点试验（IFN-γ ELISpot试验），在单个肽水平上筛选30例未接受过抗逆转录病毒治疗的HIV-1感染印度个体针对HIV-1 C亚型Gag和Nef蛋白的CTL反应。分别有73.3%和90%的研究人群的外周血单个核细胞（PBMC）对Gag和Nef抗原产生反应。Gag特异性CTL反应的强度与血浆病毒载量呈负相关（r = -0.45，P = 0.001），而Nef特异性反应的强度则呈正相关（r = 0.115）。在本研究中确定了13个免疫显性区域（Gag中有6个，Nef中有7个）。在HIV-1感染的印度人群中鉴定Gag和Nef特异性反应，并针对多个免疫显性区域的表位，可能为新免疫疗法和疫苗的设计提供有用的见解。
