A systematic review of T cell epitopes defined from the proteome of human immunodeficiency virus

Abstract

Background

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) persists as a formidable and far - reaching threat without a cure. T cells are crucial for antiviral immunity and pathology in HIV patients, with specific T cell epitopes potentially key to effective therapies and HIV cure methods.

Methods

Identifying sufficient T-cell epitopes within the HIV proteome holds great significance. It can not only substantially accelerate the development of T-cell epitope-based vaccines but also enable a highly precise evaluation of the host's HIV-specific cellular immunity. This research provides an overview of functionally verified T-cell epitopes derived from HIV antigens, the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles, as well as the screening and identification strategies.

Results

Totally, 239 and 82 epitopes have been verified for CD8⁺ T-cell and CD4⁺ T-cell respectively by functional experiments. The majority are presented by various HLA supertypes, such as HLA-B35, B5301, A6802 or A0201, and DRB1 molecules. Furthermore, 74 % of the epitopes for CD8⁺T-cell belong to Gag, Pol, as well as Nef Protein while 68 % of the CD4⁺ T-cell epitopes originate from Gag protein. Antigenic peptides of HIV-1 subtypes A/B/C/D/CRF01_AE account for 11.43 %, 58.26 %, 21.69 %, 4.96 %, and 3.65 %, respectively.

Conclusions

The 321 T-cell epitope repertoires of HIV encompass the HLA polymorphisms of the main populations and subtypes in a particular geographical area. These epitope catalogs provide strong support for researching therapeutic vaccines, specific T-cell detection, and the interaction mechanism between HIV and the immune system. However, the limitations of the identified T-cell epitope library, the polymorphism of HLA molecules, and the high mutation rate of HIV require more research to cover the entire HIV proteome and the comprehensive landscape of T-cell epitopes in global patients.