Within-Epitope Interactions Can Bias CTL Escape Estimation in Early HIV Infection.

ABSTRACT: As human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) begins to replicate within hosts, immune responses are elicited against it. Escape mutations in viral epitopes-immunogenic peptide parts presented on the surface of infected cells-allow HIV to partially evade these responses, and thus rapidly go to fixation. The faster they go to fixation, i.e., the higher their escape rate, the larger the selective pressure exerted by the immune system is assumed to be. This relation underpins the rationale for using escapes to assess the strength of immune responses. However, escape rate estimates are often obtained by employing an aggregation procedure, where several mutations that affect the same epitope are aggregated into a single, composite epitope mutation. The aggregation procedure thus re

SUBMITTER: Garcia V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5410659 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature