engleski

Persistant immunodominant anti-Gag SLYNTVATL responses in HIV-patients with up to 7 years of HAART

We analyzed Gag-specific CD8+ T-cells in HIV-patients on long-term HAART and in untreated chronically-infected patients by using iTAg MHC class I tetramers (HLA-A*0201) specific for SLYNTVATL. Gag SLYNTVATL-specific CD8+ T-cells were detectable in 18 of 26 treated patients (median 5.2 years of HAART) and in 10 of 14 untreated patients. Median percentage of Gag SLYNTVATL-specific CD8+ T-cells in treated patients was 0.10 (range 0.00-0.70%). Median number of Gag SLYNTVATL-specific CD8+ T-cells per 50, 000 CD8+ T-cells was 56.0 cells (range 2.0-344.0 cells) and was not significantly different compared with untreated patients (p=0.978). Numbers of Gag SLYNTVATL-specific CD8+ T-cells were inversely correlated with the duration of undetectable plasma viremia (p=0.02, Rho= -0.430). Chronically-infected HIV-patients on HAART (for up to 7.7 years) maintained a stable subpopulation of Gag SLYNTVATL-specific CD8+ T-cells. This finding is relevant for the analysis of treatment-induced immune reconstitution and, possibly, for future therapeutic strategies in HIV-disease.

HIV-1; MHC class I tetramer; HAART; CD8; immune reconstitution

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