title: HIV CTL escape: at what cost?
abstract: Recent data have established the HIV-1 and SIV escape CTL through epitope mutation. However, three novel studies prove that such escape comes at a "cost" to overall viral fitness. Understanding how HIV-1/SIV escape CTL and the impact of the escape mutations has tremendous importance in developing CTL based vaccines. Further, a CTL based HIV-1 vaccine is likely to have long-term protective effect against disease only if the escape virus is significantly weakened compared with wild type.
authors.affiliation: Saint Michael's Medical Center and The New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey 07102, USA. ssmith1824@aol.com
authors.forename: Stephen M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D016915:AIDS Vaccines; D000818:Animals; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000276:immunology; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D008251:Macaca; D015302:Simian Immunodeficiency Virus / Q000276:immunology; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000276:immunology*; D014779:Virus Replication
chemical_list: D016915:AIDS Vaccines