HIV-specific CD8+ T cells from HIV+ individuals receiving HAART can be expanded ex vivo to augment systemic and mucosal immunity in vivo.

ABSTRACT: Most HIV+ individuals require lifelong highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) to suppress HIV replication, but fail to eliminate the virus in part because of residual replication in gut-associated lymphoid tissues (GALT). Naturally elicited HIV-specific CD8+ T cells generated in the acute and chronic infectious phases exhibit antiviral activity, but decrease in number after HAART. Therapeutic vaccines represent a potential strategy to expand cellular responses, although previous efforts have been largely unsuccessful, conceivably because of a lack of responding HIV-specific central-memory CD8+ T cells (Tcm). To determine whether patients receiving HAART possess CD8+ T cells with Tcm qualities that are amenable to augmentation, HIV-specific CD8+ T-cell clones were derived from HIV-rea

SUBMITTER: Chapuis AG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3109713 | biostudies-literature | 2011 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature