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Association between Virus-Specific Cytotoxic T-Lymphocyte and Helper Responses in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection

1999; American Society for Microbiology; Volume: 73; Issue: 8 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1128/jvi.73.8.6715-6720.1999

1098-5514

Spyros A. Kalams, Susan Buchbinder, Eric Rosenberg, James M. Billingsley, Dom Colbert, Norman G. Jones, Amy Shea, Alicja Trocha, Bruce D. Walker,

T-cell and B-cell Immunology

ABSTRACT Cellular immune responses are thought to be an important antiviral host defense, but the relationship between virus-specific T-helper and cytotoxic-T-lymphocyte (CTL) responses has not been defined. To investigate a potential link between these responses, we examined functional human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-specific memory CTL precursor frequencies and p24-specific proliferative responses in a cohort of infected untreated persons with a wide range of viral loads and CD4 cell counts. Levels of p24-specific proliferative responses positively correlated with levels of Gag-specific CTL precursors and negatively correlated with levels of plasma HIV-1 RNA. These data linking the levels of HIV-specific CTL with virus-specific helper cell function during chronic viral infection provide cellular immunologic parameters to guide therapeutic and prophylactic vaccine development.