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HLA-II-Associated HIV-1 Adaptation Decreases CD4 + T-Cell Responses in HIV-1 Vaccine Recipients
Journal article   Peer reviewed

HLA-II-Associated HIV-1 Adaptation Decreases CD4 + T-Cell Responses in HIV-1 Vaccine Recipients

J.K. Files, S. Sterrett, S. Henostroza, C. Fucile, K. Maroney, T. Fram, S. Mallal, S. Kalams, J. Carlson, A. Rosenberg, …
Journal of Virology, Vol.96(17)
2022
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Abstract

Epitopes with evidence of HLA-II-associated adaptation induce poorly immunogenic CD4+ T-cell responses in HIV-positive (HIV+) individuals. Many such escaped CD4+ T-cell epitopes are encoded by HIV-1 vaccines being evaluated in clinical trials. Here, we assessed whether this viral adaptation adversely impacts CD4+ T-cell responses following HIV-1 vaccination, thereby representing escaped epitopes. When evaluated in separate peptide pools, vaccine-encoded adapted epitopes (AE) induced CD4+ T-cell responses less frequently than nonadapted epitopes (NAE). We also demonstrated that in a polyvalent vaccine, where both forms of the same epitope were encoded, AE were less immunogenic. NAE-specific CD4+ T cells had increased, albeit low, levels of interferon gamma (IFN-γ) cytokine production. Single-cell transcriptomic analyses showed that NAE-specific CD4+ T cells expressed interferon-related genes, while AE-specific CD4+ T cells resembled a Th2 phenotype. Importantly, the magnitude of NAE-specific CD4+ T-cell responses, but not that of AE-specific responses, was found to positively correlate with Env-specific antibodies in a vaccine efficacy trial. Together, these findings show that HLA-II-associated viral adaptation reduces CD4+ T-cell responses in HIV-1 vaccine recipients and suggest that vaccines encoding a significant number of AE may not provide optimal B-cell help for HIV-specific antibody production.

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Collaboration types
Industry collaboration
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Citation topics
1 Clinical & Life Sciences
1.66 HIV
1.66.46 HIV Pathogenesis
Web Of Science research areas
Virology
ESI research areas
Microbiology
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