title: Short communication: HIV-1 Nef protein carries multiple epitopes suitable for induction of cellular immunity for an HIV vaccine in Africa.
abstract: Using the early protein HIV Nef, new HLA class I binding epitopes of importance for immune responses to HIV were predicted for common African alleles. In total we identified 45 epitopes previously not described for the HLA alleles A*30:01, A*30:02, B*58:01, and C*07:01 and compared them to reported epitopes, primarily from HLA-A*02:01, from the Los Alamos database and our own vaccine studies. Related to its small size, the Nef gene/protein appears to be able to contribute effectively to confer both stronger and broader cellular immunogenicity to an HIV-1 vaccine. We also propose feasible mutations of such an additional vaccine antigen to preserve its immunogenicity, modified not to confer HLA or CD4(+) down-regulating activities. This article includes data on a valuable HIV immunogenic component for a vaccine in Africa.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet , Stockholm, Sweden .
authors.forename: Athina
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kilpeläinen
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Axelsson Robertson
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Leitner
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sandström
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maeurer
authors.forename: Britta
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wahren
mesh_terms: D016915:AIDS Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*; D000349:Africa; D000483:Alleles; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte / Q000276:immunology*; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000628:therapy*; D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007111:Immunity, Cellular; D054311:nef Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D016915:AIDS Vaccines; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte; D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I; D054311:nef Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus; C514837:nef protein, Human immunodeficiency virus 1