title: Lysis of CD4+ T cells expressing HIV-1 gag peptides by gag-specific CD8+ cytotoxic T cells.
abstract: The vast majority of in vitro experiments testing the cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) activity in HIV infection has been performed with target cells consisting of autologous EBV-transformed B lymphoblastoid cell lines (B-LCLs) expressing Human immunodeficiency virus type I (HIV-1) proteins. However data concerning the lysis of primary CD4+ T lymphocytes expressing HIV-1 antigens by CTLs is still lacking. To study the CTL activity against such primary targets, we used a system involving PBMCs of an HIV+ asymptomatic patient (PT) as effector cells and the CD4+ lymphocytes or B-LCLs of his healthy HLA-identical twin brother (HTW) as target cells. These syngeneic targets were either infected with recombinant vaccinia virus containing HIV-1 gag gene (gag-vac), or coated with HIV-1 gag peptides. We demonstrate in this study that PT CTLs (which were CD3+, CD4-, CD8+, TCRalphabeta+, TCRgammadelta-, CD56-) specifically lysed both types of syngeneic target cells expressing gag-vac; however, CD4+ T cells expressing HIV gag proteins were lysed less efficiently than B-LCLs expressing the same HIV epitopes. On the other hand, no specific lysis was detected when the target cells were uninfected or infected by wild-type vaccinia virus.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Immunologie des Tumeurs, Hôpital Laënnec, Faculté Necker, Paris, France.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Salerno-Gonçalves
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Achour
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Andrieu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology* / Q000821:virology; D002461:Cell Line, Transformed; D002857:Chromium / Q000378:metabolism; D003601:Cytotoxicity Tests, Immunologic; D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic; D004200:Diseases in Twins; D015683:Gene Products, gag / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000276:immunology*; D014430:Twins, Monozygotic; D014616:Vaccinia virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D015683:Gene Products, gag; D010446:Peptide Fragments; D002857:Chromium