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Virus-specific cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) responses are critical in the control of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection and will play an important part in therapeutic and prophylactic HIV-1 vaccines. The identification of virus-specific epitopes that are efficiently recognized by CTL is the first step in the development of future vaccines. Here we describe the immunological characterization of a number of novel HIV-1-specific, HLA-A2-restricted CTL epitopes that share a high degree of conservation within HIV-1 and a strong binding to different alleles of the HLA-A2 superfamily. These novel epitopes include the first reported CTL epitope in the Vpr protein. Two of the novel epitopes were immunodominant among the HLA-A2-restricted CTL responses of individuals with acute and chronic HIV-1 infection. The novel CTL epitopes identified here should be included in future vaccines designed to induce HIV-1-specific CTL responses restricted by the HLA-A2 superfamily and will be important to assess in immunogenicity studies in infected persons and in uninfected recipients of candidate HIV-1 vaccines.

Original publication

DOI

10.1128/JVI.75.3.1301-1311.2001

Type

Journal article

Journal

J Virol

Publication Date

02/2001

Volume

75

Pages

1301 - 1311

Keywords

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Binding Sites, Cell Line, Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte, Gene Products, vpr, HIV-1, HLA-A2 Antigen, Humans, T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic, vpr Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus