Polymorphisms in HLA class I genes associated with both favorable prognosis of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 1 infection and positive cytotoxic T-lymphocyte responses to ALVAC-HIV recombinant canarypox vaccines
Ra. Kaslow et al., Polymorphisms in HLA class I genes associated with both favorable prognosis of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 1 infection and positive cytotoxic T-lymphocyte responses to ALVAC-HIV recombinant canarypox vaccines, J VIROLOGY, 75(18), 2001, pp. 8681-8689
Carriers of certain human leukocyte antigen class I alleles show favorable
prognosis of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection, presuma
bly due to effective CD8(+) cytotoxic T-lymphocyte responses, but close rel
ationships between class I variants mediating such responses to natural and
to vaccine HIV-1 antigen have not been established. During 6 to 30 months
of administration and follow-up in trials of ALVAC-HIV recombinant canarypo
x vaccines, cells from 42% of 291 HIV-1-negative vaccinated subjects typed
at class I loci responded to an HIV-1 protein in a lytic bulk CD8+ cytotoxi
c T-lymphocyte assay. By 2 weeks after the second dose, higher proportions
of vaccinees carrying one of two alleles consistently associated with slowe
r progression of natural HIV-1 infection reacted at least once: B*27 carrie
rs reacted to Gag (64%; odds ratio [OR] = 10.3, P = 0.001) and Env (36%; OR
= 4.6, P = 0.04), and B*57 carriers reacted to Env (44%; OR = 6.6, P < 0.0
5). By 2 weeks after the third or fourth dose, B*27 carriers had responded
(two or more reactions) to Gag (33%; OR 4.4, P < 0.05) and B*57 carriers ha
d responded to both Gag (39%; OR = 5.3, P = 0.013) and Env (39%; OR 9.5, P
= 0.002). Homozygosity at class I loci, although conferring an unfavorable
prognosis following natural infection, showed no such disadvantage for vacc
ine response. Individual class I alleles have not previously demonstrated s
uch clear and consistent relationship with both the clinical course of an i
nfection and cellular immunity to a vaccine against the infectious agent. T
his proof of principle that class I an alleles modulate both processes has
implications for development of HIV-1 and presumably other vaccines.