It has been hypothesized that sequence variation within CTL epitopes leading to immune escape plays a role in the progression of HIV-1 infection. Only very limited data exist that address the influence of biologic characteristics of CTL epitopes on the emergence of immune escape variants and the efficiency of suppression HIV-1 by CTL. In this report, we studied the effects of HIV-1 CTL epitope ...

In this paper, we propose and investigate a fractional diffusive model for hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection with capsids immune response presented by cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) cells. We derive the conditions global asymptotic stability of steady states in terms basic reproduction number R 0 1 . By constructing appropriate Lyapunov functionals, it is shown that infection-free equilibrium glo...

OBJECTIVE To identify and characterize cytotoxic T-cell (CTL) epitopes for HIV-1 clade E using eight known HLA-A*1101-restricted HIV-1 clade B epitopes. METHODS Induction of clade E-specific CTL was examined by stimulating peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from clade E-infected Thai individuals with the clade E-specific peptide corresponding to the clade B epitopes. Cross-clade and cl...

Improved understanding of the dynamics of host immune responses and viral evolution is critical for effective HIV-1 vaccine design. We comprehensively analyzed Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL)-viral epitope dynamics in an antiretroviral therapy-naïve subject over the first four years of HIV-1 infection. We found that CTL responses developed sequentially and required constant antigenic stimulation f...

The majority of immunogenic CTL epitopes bind to MHC class I molecules with high affinity. However, peptides longer or shorter than the optimal epitope rarely bind with high affinity. Therefore, identification of optimal CTL epitopes from pathogens may ultimately be critical for inducing strong CTL responses and developing epitope-based vaccines. The SIV-infected rhesus macaque is an excellent ...

Mycobacterial antigens not only stimulate Th cells that produce macrophage-activating factors, but also CD4+ and CD8+ CTL that lyse human macrophages. The mycobacterial recombinant 65-kD hsp was previously found to be an important target antigen for polyclonal CD4+ CTL. Because of the major role of 65-kD hsp in the immune response to mycobacterial as well as autoantigens, we have studied CTL ac...

Considerable evidence indicates that cloned CTL cell lines kill target cells by releasing toxic granules that contain a cytolytic protein, called perforin, and several serine esterases (granzymes A to F). However, primary CTL, such as the highly cytolytic peritoneal exudate lymphocyte (PEL) cell population, have been found by a hemolytic assay to have no perforin, or perhaps only borderline lev...

Cytolytic T lymphocytes (CTL) were generated against murine tumors induced by Gross, Friend, or Rauscher leukemia virus (LV) in syngeneic mixed leukocyte-tumor cell cultures. Analogous to the patterns of specificity observed with antibodies to LV-induced cell surface antigens, CTL could be classified into two major groups of specificity. Tumor cells induced by Friend, Moloney, or Rauscher virus...