Identification of HLA-C restricted, HIV-1-specific CTL epitopes by peptide induced upregulation of HLA-C expression

Stoll A, Bergmann S, Mummert C, Mueller-Schmucker SM, Spriewald BM, Harrer EG, Harrer T (2015)


Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2015

Journal

Book Volume: 418

Pages Range: 9-18

DOI: 10.1016/j.jim.2015.01.005

Abstract

HIV-1 negative regulatory factor (Nef) can inhibit CTL recognition by downregulation of HLA-A and HLA-B on the cell surface. In contrast, HLA-C is not affected by Nef and a growing number of studies demonstrate an important role of HLA-C for the control of HIV-1. So far, only a limited number of HLA-C restricted CTL epitopes are known. As the mapping of new CTL epitopes is time and labor intensive, we investigated a novel method for the identification of HLA-C restricted CTL epitopes. B-lymphoblastoid cell lines (B-LCLs) and T2-cells were incubated with HIV-1 specific peptides and subsequently stained for HLA-C surface expression using the HLA-C specific antibody DT9. Peptides that led to increased HLA-C surface expression were used for stimulation of PBMC from HIV-1-infected patients. Subsequently, outgrowing cells were tested for peptide recognition in IFN-? ELISPOT assays and HLA restriction of the recognized peptides was analyzed in ELISPOT assays using HLA-matched B-LCL. We observed that known HLA-C binding peptides increase HLA-C surface expression on T2-cells and on HLA-C*0102 and HLA-C*0702 homozygous B-LCL. Moreover, screening of HIV-1 Nef with overlapping peptides for potential C*0702 restricted epitopes using this method revealed a total of 8 peptides which considerably increased cell surface expression of HLA-C. By epitope mapping and functional analysis of peptide-stimulated T-cell lines we were able to define the peptide YPLTFGWCY as a new C*0702-restricted CTL epitope. These results show that the analysis of peptide induced HLA-C upregulation on B-LCL and T2-cells enables the efficient identification of new HLA-C restricted CTL epitopes.

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How to cite

APA:

Stoll, A., Bergmann, S., Mummert, C., Mueller-Schmucker, S.M., Spriewald, B.M., Harrer, E.G., & Harrer, T. (2015). Identification of HLA-C restricted, HIV-1-specific CTL epitopes by peptide induced upregulation of HLA-C expression. Journal of Immunological Methods, 418, 9-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jim.2015.01.005

MLA:

Stoll, Andrej, et al. "Identification of HLA-C restricted, HIV-1-specific CTL epitopes by peptide induced upregulation of HLA-C expression." Journal of Immunological Methods 418 (2015): 9-18.

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