title: Identification of peptides from human pathogens able to cross-activate an HIV-1-gag-specific CD4+ T cell clone.
abstract: Antigen recognition by T cells is degenerate both at the MHC and the TCR level. In this study, we analyzed the cross-reactivity of a human HIV-1 gag p24-specific CD4(+) T cell clone obtained from an HIV-1-seronegative donor using a positional scanning synthetic combinatorial peptide library (PS-SCL)-based biometrical analysis. A number of decapeptides able to activate the HIV-1 gag-specific clone were identified and shown to correspond to sequences found in other human pathogens. Two of these peptides activated the T cell clone with the same stimulatory potency as the original HIV-1 gag p24 peptide. These findings show that an HIV-1-specific human T helper clone can react efficiently with peptides from other pathogens and suggest that cellular immune responses identified as being specific for one human pathogen (HIV-1) could arise from exposure to other pathogens.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Venturini
authors.forename: Gina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Allicotti
authors.forename: Yindong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Simon
authors.forename: Dennis R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Burton
authors.forename: Clemencia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pinilla
authors.forename: Pascal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Poignard
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D002999:Clone Cells; D003429:Cross Reactions; D015683:Gene Products, gag / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D019151:Peptide Library; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D015683:Gene Products, gag; D019151:Peptide Library; D014764:Viral Proteins