Antigen burden is major determinant of human immunodeficiency virus-specific CD8+ T cell maturation state: potential implications for therapeutic immunization.

The majority of untreated human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 1-infected individuals ultimately develop uncontrolled viremia and progressive disease. Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) are known to play an important role in controlling HIV-1 replication, which has led to an increasing interest in augmenting conventional antiretroviral therapy with therapeutic vaccination. The successful development of a therapeutic vaccine will rely on the ability to correlate an aspect of the immune response with clinical outcome.