Human immunodeficiency virus-specific responses in adult Ugandans: patterns of cross-clade recognition.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or AIDS is currently the leading cause of death in Uganda, with at least three HIV clades (subtypes) accounting for most new infections. Whether an effective vaccine formulated on viruses from a single clade will be able to protect against infection from other local clades remains unresolved. We examined the T-cell immune responses from a cohort of HIV-seropositive individuals in Uganda with predominantly clade A and D infections. Surprisingly, we observed similar frequencies of cross-clade T-cell responses to the gag, env, and nef regions. Our data suggest that the level of viral sequence variability between distinct HIV strains does not predict the degree of cross-clade responses. High sequence homologies were also observed between consensus peptides and sequences from viral isolates, supporting the use of consensus amino acid sequences to identify immunogenic regions in studies of large populations.
Barugahare
Banson
B
Joint Clinical Research Centre, Kampala, Uganda.
Baker
Chris
C
K'Aluoch
Okumu
O
Donovan
Richard
R
Elrefaei
Mohamed
M
Eggena
Mark
M
Jones
Norman
N
Mutalya
Steven
S
Kityo
Cissy
C
Mugyenyi
Peter
P
Cao
Huyen
H
D000328:Adult; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D016384:Consensus Sequence; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D003429:Cross Reactions; D018604:Epitope Mapping; D000939:Epitopes; D005260:Female; D015686:Gene Products, env / Q000276:immunology; D015683:Gene Products, gag / Q000276:immunology; D015693:Gene Products, nef / Q000276:immunology; D015488:HIV Antigens / Q000276:immunology*; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000276:immunology* / Q000821:virology*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000276:immunology; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D014454:Uganda; D054311:nef Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus
D000939:Epitopes; D015686:Gene Products, env; D015683:Gene Products, gag; D015693:Gene Products, nef; D015488:HIV Antigens; D054311:nef Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus; D007371:Interferon-gamma