title: Human immunodeficiency virus-specific responses in adult Ugandans: patterns of cross-clade recognition.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Joint Clinical Research Centre, Kampala, Uganda.
authors.forename: Banson
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Barugahare
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Baker
authors.forename: Okumu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: K'Aluoch
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Donovan
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Elrefaei
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eggena
authors.forename: Norman
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mutalya
authors.forename: Cissy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kityo
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mugyenyi
authors.forename: Huyen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cao
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: 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