title: Human immunodeficiency virus-1 reverse transcriptase immunodominant CD4+ T cell epitopes: a peptide-based multiparametric assessment in the mouse.
abstract: We previously identified an immunodominant CD4+ T cell determinant in the carboxy-terminal region of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (RT528-543). The present study aimed at enumerating all the potential sites of HIV-1 RT recognized by Th cells in the BALB/c (H-2d) mouse model. To achieve this we used a panel of 62 overlapping 15-mer synthetic peptides covering the whole RT sequence to assay the following parameters: (i) immunogenicity in naive BALB/c mice injected either with peptides pools or individual peptides; (ii) antigenicity, as detected by their ability to restimulate in vitro T cells from BALB/c mice primed with native RT; (iii) MHC class II (Ad)-binding capacity as measured by the inhibition of the antigen-specific, Ad-restricted presentation of unfolded apamin (4-Acm) by fixed antigen-presenting cells to Ad/4-Acm-specific, interleukin-2-producing T hybridoma cells; and (iv) the presence of typical or degenerate consensus Ad-binding motifs. The results in this study permitted identification of three novel immunodominant RT mouse CD4+ T cell sites (RT276-290, RT375-389 and RT411-425) located in regions of limited polymorphism among RT from several HIV isolates. Some of these RT segments were found to be in the vicinity of B cell or H-2Kk- or HLA-A2-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocyte epitopes. Finally, the approach used in this study was found to be very efficient for enumerating most T cell recognition sites in a complex protein, a result that would have not been achieved by a single parameter-based analysis.
authors.affiliation: Centre d'Immunologie INSERM-CNRS de Marseille-Luminy, France.
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Borg
authors.forename: H G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Ihlenfeldt
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Haas
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pierres
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D054303:HIV Reverse Transcriptase; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000276:immunology*; D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D007114:Immunization; D016056:Immunodominant Epitopes / Q000276:immunology*; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012194:RNA-Directed DNA Polymerase / Q000276:immunology*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
chemical_list: D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II; D016056:Immunodominant Epitopes; D054303:HIV Reverse Transcriptase; D012194:RNA-Directed DNA Polymerase