Evidence of CD8+ T-cell-mediated selective pressure on human immunodeficiency virus type 1 nef in HLA-B*57+ elite suppressors.

ABSTRACT: Elite suppressors (ES) are human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-infected patients who maintain viral loads of <50 copies/ml without treatment. The observation that the HLA-B*57 allele is overrepresented in these patients implies that HIV-1-specific CD8(+) T cells play a key role in suppressing viral replication. We have previously shown that while CD8(+) T-cell escape mutations are rarely seen in proviral Gag sequences in resting CD4(+) T cells from peripheral blood, they are present in every clone amplified from the low levels of free virus in the plasma of HLA-B*57(+) ES. In this study, we compared the pattern of mutations in Nef sequences amplified from peripheral blood CD4(+) T cells and from plasma virus. We show that Nef mutations are present in plasma virus but are rare in th

SUBMITTER: Bailey JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2612327 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature