A significant number of human immunodeficiency virus epitope-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes detected by tetramer binding do not produce gamma interferon
Pa. Goepfert et al., A significant number of human immunodeficiency virus epitope-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes detected by tetramer binding do not produce gamma interferon, J VIROLOGY, 74(21), 2000, pp. 10249-10255
Despite the seemingly important role of cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) respon
ses in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease pathogenesis, their measu
rement has relied on a variety of different techniques. We utilized three s
eparate methodologies for the detection of CTLs in a cohort of HIV-infected
individuals who were also human leukocyte antigen A2 (HLA-A2) positive. Am
ong the different CTL assays, a correlation was seen only when the Gag epit
ope-specific HLA A*0201-restricted tetramer assay was compared with the ELI
SPOT assay performed after stimulation with the Gag epitope; however, this
correlation was of borderline statistical significance. On average, the tet
ramer reagent detected a 10-fold-higher number of cells than were seen to p
roduce gamma interferon by the ELISPOT assay. The implications of this CTL
assay comparison and the possibility of phenotypic differences in HIV-speci
fic CD8(+) T lymphocytes are discussed.