title: Primary proliferative responses to peptides of HIV Gag p24.
abstract: Primary proliferative responses can be initiated by adding dendritic cells pulsed with antigen to autologous T cells in 20-microliter hanging drop cultures. To identify primary T-cell epitopes of HIV gag, a series of 23 overlapping peptides, 15 amino acids long, spanning the p24 region were used. Significant proliferative responses were induced in cells from healthy HIV-negative donors by 11 of these peptides. One of two peptides that bound human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-A *0201 in a peptide-binding assay using the antigen-processing defective cell line T2 also induced a primary proliferative response. Primary T-cell proliferation was seen in response to some peptides of gag that have not previously been identified as T-cell epitopes in cells from infected individuals. These epitopes might be useful not only for vaccines in antigenically naive individuals but also might increase the breadth of immune responses in seropositive patients.
authors.affiliation: Antigen Presentation Research Group, Imperial College School of Medicine, Northwick Park Institute for Medical Research, Harrow, England, U.K.
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Bedford
authors.forename: L B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Clarke
authors.forename: G Z
authors.initials: GZ
authors.lastname: Hastings
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Knight
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D016655:HIV Core Protein p24 / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*; D018023:HIV Seronegativity; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000276:immunology*; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D016655:HIV Core Protein p24; D010455:Peptides