Sirtuin-2, NAD-Dependent Deacetylase, Is a New Potential Therapeutic Target for HIV-1 Infection and HIV-Related Neurological Dysfunction.

The implementation and access to combined antiretroviral treatment (cART) have dramatically improved the quality of life of people living with HIV (PLWH). However, some comorbidities, such as neurological disorders associated with HIV infection still represent a serious clinical challenge. Soluble factors in plasma that are associated with control of HIV replication and neurological dysfunction could serve as early biomarkers and as new therapeutic targets for this comorbidity.

Specificity of CD8 T-Cell Responses Following Vaccination with Conserved Regions of HIV-1 in Nairobi, Kenya.

Sub-Saharan Africa carries the biggest burden of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)/AIDS epidemic and is in an urgent need of an effective vaccine. CD8 T cells are an important component of the host immune response to HIV-1 and may need to be harnessed if a vaccine is to be effective. CD8 T cells recognize human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-associated viral epitopes and the HLA alleles vary significantly among different ethnic groups.

Novel Nested Peptide Epitopes Recognized by CD4 T Cells Induced by HIV-1 Conserved-Region Vaccines.

CD4 T-cell responses play an important role in the immune control of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection and as such should be efficiently induced by vaccination. It follows that definition of HIV-1-derived peptides recognized by CD4 T cells in association with HLA class II molecules will guide vaccine development. Here, we have characterized the fine specificity of CD4 T cells elicited in human recipients of a candidate vaccine delivering conserved regions of HIV-1 proteins designated HIVconsv.

Novel, in-natural-infection subdominant HIV-1 CD8+ T-cell epitopes revealed in human recipients of conserved-region T-cell vaccines.

Background: Fine definition of targeted CD8+ T-cell epitopes and their human leucocyte antigen (HLA) class I restriction informs iterative improvements of HIV-1 T-cell vaccine designs and may predict early vaccine success or failure. Here, lymphocytes from volunteers, who had received candidate HIVconsv vaccines expressing conserved sub-protein regions of HIV-1, were used to define the optimum-length target epitopes and their HLA restriction. In HIV-1-positive patients, CD8+ T-cell responses predominantly recognize immunodominant, but hypervariable and therefore less protective epitopes.