CD8+ T cells specific for conserved, cross-reactive Gag epitopes with strong ability to suppress HIV-1 replication

Background: Development of AIDS vaccines for effective prevention of circulating HIV-1 is required, but no trial has demonstrated definitive effects on the prevention. Several recent T-cell vaccine trials showed no protection against HIV-1 acquisition although the vaccines induced HIV-1-specific T-c...

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Hoofdauteurs: Murakoshi, H, Zou, C, Kuse, N, Akahoshi, T, Chikata, T, Gatanaga, H, Oka, S, Hanke, T, Takiguchi, M
Formaat: Journal article
Taal:English
Gepubliceerd in: BioMed Central 2018
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author Murakoshi, H
Zou, C
Kuse, N
Akahoshi, T
Chikata, T
Gatanaga, H
Oka, S
Hanke, T
Takiguchi, M
author_facet Murakoshi, H
Zou, C
Kuse, N
Akahoshi, T
Chikata, T
Gatanaga, H
Oka, S
Hanke, T
Takiguchi, M
author_sort Murakoshi, H
collection OXFORD
description Background: Development of AIDS vaccines for effective prevention of circulating HIV-1 is required, but no trial has demonstrated definitive effects on the prevention. Several recent T-cell vaccine trials showed no protection against HIV-1 acquisition although the vaccines induced HIV-1-specific T-cell responses, suggesting that the vaccine-induced T cells have insufficient capacities to suppress HIV-1 replication and/or cross-recognize circulating HIV-1. Therefore, it is necessary to develop T-cell vaccines that elicit T cells recognizing shared protective epitopes with strong ability to suppress HIV-1. We recently designed T-cell mosaic vaccine immunogens tHIVconsvX composed of 6 conserved Gag and Pol regions and demonstrated that the T-cell responses to peptides derived from the vaccine immunogens were significantly associated with lower plasma viral load (pVL) and higher CD4+ T-cell count (CD4 count) in HIV-1-infected, treatment-naive Japanese individuals. However, it remains unknown T cells of which specificities have the ability to suppress HIV-1 replication. In the present study, we sought to identify more T cells specific for protective Gag epitopes in the vaccine immunogens, and analyze their abilities to suppress HIV-1 replication and recognize epitope variants in circulating HIV-1. Results: We determined 17 optimal Gag epitopes and their HLA restriction, and found that T-cell responses to 9 were associated significantly with lower pVL and/or higher CD4 count. T-cells recognizing 5 of these Gag peptides remained associated with good clinical outcome in 221 HIV-1-infected individuals even when comparing responders and non-responders with the same restricting HLA alleles. Although it was known previously that T cells specific for 3 of these protective epitopes had strong abilities to suppress HIV-1 replication in vivo, here we demonstrated equivalent abilities for the 2 novel epitopes. Furthermore, T cells against all 5 Gag epitopes cross-recognized variants in majority of circulating HIV-1. Conclusions: We demonstrated that T cells specific for 5 Gag conserved epitopes in the tHIVconsvX have ability to suppress replication of circulating HIV-1 in HIV-1-infected individuals. Therefore, the tHIVconsvX vaccines have the right specificity to contribute to prevention of HIV-1 infection and eradication of latently infected cells following HIV-1 reactivation.
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spelling oxford-uuid:d5a9efa7-06b7-4fd6-bf1e-f81b70a5f03a2022-03-27T08:27:36ZCD8+ T cells specific for conserved, cross-reactive Gag epitopes with strong ability to suppress HIV-1 replicationJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:d5a9efa7-06b7-4fd6-bf1e-f81b70a5f03aEnglishSymplectic Elements at OxfordBioMed Central2018Murakoshi, HZou, CKuse, NAkahoshi, TChikata, TGatanaga, HOka, SHanke, TTakiguchi, MBackground: Development of AIDS vaccines for effective prevention of circulating HIV-1 is required, but no trial has demonstrated definitive effects on the prevention. Several recent T-cell vaccine trials showed no protection against HIV-1 acquisition although the vaccines induced HIV-1-specific T-cell responses, suggesting that the vaccine-induced T cells have insufficient capacities to suppress HIV-1 replication and/or cross-recognize circulating HIV-1. Therefore, it is necessary to develop T-cell vaccines that elicit T cells recognizing shared protective epitopes with strong ability to suppress HIV-1. We recently designed T-cell mosaic vaccine immunogens tHIVconsvX composed of 6 conserved Gag and Pol regions and demonstrated that the T-cell responses to peptides derived from the vaccine immunogens were significantly associated with lower plasma viral load (pVL) and higher CD4+ T-cell count (CD4 count) in HIV-1-infected, treatment-naive Japanese individuals. However, it remains unknown T cells of which specificities have the ability to suppress HIV-1 replication. In the present study, we sought to identify more T cells specific for protective Gag epitopes in the vaccine immunogens, and analyze their abilities to suppress HIV-1 replication and recognize epitope variants in circulating HIV-1. Results: We determined 17 optimal Gag epitopes and their HLA restriction, and found that T-cell responses to 9 were associated significantly with lower pVL and/or higher CD4 count. T-cells recognizing 5 of these Gag peptides remained associated with good clinical outcome in 221 HIV-1-infected individuals even when comparing responders and non-responders with the same restricting HLA alleles. Although it was known previously that T cells specific for 3 of these protective epitopes had strong abilities to suppress HIV-1 replication in vivo, here we demonstrated equivalent abilities for the 2 novel epitopes. Furthermore, T cells against all 5 Gag epitopes cross-recognized variants in majority of circulating HIV-1. Conclusions: We demonstrated that T cells specific for 5 Gag conserved epitopes in the tHIVconsvX have ability to suppress replication of circulating HIV-1 in HIV-1-infected individuals. Therefore, the tHIVconsvX vaccines have the right specificity to contribute to prevention of HIV-1 infection and eradication of latently infected cells following HIV-1 reactivation.
spellingShingle Murakoshi, H
Zou, C
Kuse, N
Akahoshi, T
Chikata, T
Gatanaga, H
Oka, S
Hanke, T
Takiguchi, M
CD8+ T cells specific for conserved, cross-reactive Gag epitopes with strong ability to suppress HIV-1 replication
title CD8+ T cells specific for conserved, cross-reactive Gag epitopes with strong ability to suppress HIV-1 replication
title_full CD8+ T cells specific for conserved, cross-reactive Gag epitopes with strong ability to suppress HIV-1 replication
title_fullStr CD8+ T cells specific for conserved, cross-reactive Gag epitopes with strong ability to suppress HIV-1 replication
title_full_unstemmed CD8+ T cells specific for conserved, cross-reactive Gag epitopes with strong ability to suppress HIV-1 replication
title_short CD8+ T cells specific for conserved, cross-reactive Gag epitopes with strong ability to suppress HIV-1 replication
title_sort cd8 t cells specific for conserved cross reactive gag epitopes with strong ability to suppress hiv 1 replication
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