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. 2004 May 12:1:8.
doi: 10.1186/1742-4690-1-8.

HIV CTL escape: at what cost?

Stephen M Smith  1
Affiliations

HIV CTL escape: at what cost?

Stephen M Smith. Retrovirology. .

Abstract

Recent data have established the HIV-1 and SIV escape CTL through epitope mutation. However, three novel studies prove that such escape comes at a "cost" to overall viral fitness. Understanding how HIV-1/SIV escape CTL and the impact of the escape mutations has tremendous importance in developing CTL based vaccines. Further, a CTL based HIV-1 vaccine is likely to have long-term protective effect against disease only if the escape virus is significantly weakened compared with wild type.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cartoon representation of SIVtat1ex fitness in vivo. In the absence of CTL against Tat second exon epitopes (Tat 2 ex), SIV encoding two-exon Tat are more fit and replicate to higher levels. The single exon Tat genome is represented by a pink bar with a jagged edge; the two-exon Tat genome is depicted by a green rectangle. Viruses are illustrated as hexagons with inner ovals.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Cartoon representation of SIVtat1ex fitness in vivo. In the presence of specific CTL response against these epitope(s), cells expressing two-exon Tat are eliminated and SIVtat1ex becomes relatively more fit, albeit at lower level overall. The single exon Tat genome is represented by a pink bar with a jagged edge; the two-exon Tat genome is depicted by a green rectangle. Viruses are illustrated as hexagons with inner ovals.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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