title: Clonal breadth of the HIV-1-specific T-cell receptor repertoire in vivo as determined by subtractive analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Although the epitopic breadth of HIV-1-specific CD8 T lymphocyte (CTL) responses has been described, the T cell receptor (TCR) diversity of virus-specific cells remains poorly defined.
  
  
  METHODS
  To address this issue, we applied a novel technique for subtractive analysis of the HIV-1-specific CTL repertoire, combining specific deletion of peptide-specific cells by 5-fluorouracil with TCR spectratyping to identify clonal breadth of CTL recognizing individual peptides.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Comprehensive analysis of an infected individual reveals that nine identified HIV-1-specific responses are comprised of at least 38 distinct T-cell clones (ranging from two to 10 distinct clones per epitope).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Given the potentially crucial role of T-cell receptor breadth for viral recognition and avoidance of escape, this subepitopic analysis of CTL may offer an important measure of cellular immunity for pathogenesis and vaccine studies.
authors.affiliation: AIDS Institute and Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA.
authors.forename: M Scott
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Killian
authors.forename: Rachel Lubong
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Sabado
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kilpatrick
authors.forename: Mary Ann
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Hausner
authors.forename: Beth D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Jamieson
authors.forename: Otto O
authors.initials: OO
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D017637:Clonal Deletion; D002999:Clone Cells / Q000276:immunology; D022801:Complementarity Determining Regions / Q000276:immunology; D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte / Q000276:immunology; D005434:Flow Cytometry / Q000379:methods; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000276:immunology*; D015497:HIV-1; D006801:Humans; D007111:Immunity, Cellular; D008297:Male; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell / Q000276:immunology*; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta / Q000276:immunology; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D022801:Complementarity Determining Regions; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta