Interleukin-2 production used to detect antigenic peptide recognition by T-helper lymphocytes from asymptomatic HIV-seropositive individuals |
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Authors: | M Clerici N I Stocks R A Zajac R N Boswell D C Bernstein D L Mann G M Shearer J A Berzofsky |
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Institution: | Experimental Immunology Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland 20892. |
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Abstract: | T lymphocytes from mice and healthy humans immunized against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) envelope have recently been shown to recognize two antigenic regions of the gp160 HIV-envelope protein which have been located on the basis of amphipathicity. In HIV-infected humans, T-cell proliferative responses are lost soon after infection. Here we demonstrate that interleukin-2 production is often retained even when proliferative activity is absent, and that it can be used to monitor T-helper cell responses by HIV-seropositive donors. We use this approach to investigate the T-helper cell response of 42 asymptomatic HIV-seropositive patients to four synthetic gp160 peptides and to influenza A virus, an antigen requiring intact CD4 T-helper cell function. As many as 67% of the HIV-seropositive donors who retain responsiveness to influenza A virus respond to a single peptide, and 85-90% responded to at least one of the peptides. |
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