Kb. Bond et al., An HLA-directed molecular and bioinformatics approach identifies new HLA-A11 HIV-1 subtype E cytotoxic T lymphocyte epitopes in HIV-1-infected thais, AIDS RES H, 17(8), 2001, pp. 703-717
Only limited cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitope mapping has been done in
nonsubtype B HIV-infected persons. We used molecular immunogenetic tools to
determine HIV-specific CTL responses in HIV-1 Env subtype E-infected femal
e sex workers (FSWs) from northern Thailand, where more than 50% of the pop
ulation is HLA-A11 positive. EpiMatrix, a computer-based T cell epitope pre
diction algorithm, and a manual editing approach were used to predict 77 po
ssible HLA-A11 CTL epitopes in HIV-1, some of which were conserved between
subtypes B and E, MHC binding of these peptides was determined in an HLA-A1
1 stabilization assay, and binding peptides were tested for CTL recognition
in eight HLA-A11-positive FSWs, Subtype E versions of known HLA-A2 subtype
B HIV epitopes were also tested in four HLA-A2 positive FSWs, CTL response
s were detected in all HLA-A11-positive and in three of four HLA-A2-positiv
e persons. Among the 12 FSWs responses to peptides were found to Pol in 9 (
75%), Env in 7 (58%), Nef in 5 (42%), and Gag in 5 (42%), and to conserved
epitopes in 8 (67%), To identify HLA-A11 CTL epitopes in the absence of pre
diction tools, it would have been necessary to test almost 3000 10-mer pept
ides, EpiMatrix and manual predictions reduced this number to 77, of which
26 were MHC binding and 12 were CTL epitopes, Six of these HLA-A11 CTL epit
opes have not been previously reported and are located in RT, gp120, and gp
41. This report of CTL responses in subtype E-infected individuals defines
epitopes that may be useful in HIV pathogenesis or vaccine studies.