Alternative effector-function profiling identifies broad HIV-specific T-cell responses in highly HIV-exposed individuals who remain uninfected.

ABSTRACT: The characterization of host immune responses to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in HIV controllers and individuals with high exposure but seronegativity to HIV (HESN) is needed to guide the development of effective preventive and therapeutic vaccine candidates. However, several technical hurdles severely limit the definition of an effective virus-specific T-cell response. By using a toggle-peptide approach, which takes HIV sequence diversity into account, and a novel, boosted cytokine staining/flow cytometry strategy, we here describe new patterns of T-cell responses to HIV that would be missed by standard assays. Importantly, this approach also allows detection of broad and strong virus-specific T-cell responses in HESN individuals that are characterized by a T-helper type 1 cytokine-

SUBMITTER: Ruiz-Riol M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4416125 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature