Analysis of anti-virus ability of escape mutant HIV-1-specific CTLs contributing to HIV-1 control

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26860335
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Immunology
• Research Institution: Kumamoto University
• Principal Investigator: Akahoshi Tomohiro 熊本大学, エイズ学研究センター, 特定事業研究員 (10635783)
• Research Collaborator: GATANAGA Hiroyuki 国立国際医療研究センター, エイズ治療・研究開発センター
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: HIV-1 / CTL / 逃避変異 / 変異の蓄積 / HIV-1増殖制御

Outline of Final Research Achievements

It has been suggested that circulation of mutant HIV-1 which had acquired mutations to escape from immune pressure of HIV-1-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) was associated with more rapid disease progression in recent HIV-1-infected individuals than that in previous ones. However, why does the disease still gradually progress rather than more rapidly? To address this issue, I investigated presence of HIV-1-specific CTLs recognizing mutant HIV-1 in context of CTL epitopes which were observed low frequent mutations in a cohort of treatment-naive chronically HIV-1-infected Japanese. As a result, I found that HIV-1-specific CTLs were induced before/after emergence of mutant HIV-1, which CTLs had an ability to recognize mutant viruses and/or to suppress replication of mutant viruses. This result suggests that CTLs having the ability to suppress mutant viruses contribute to a delay of the disease progression.

Free Research Field

HIV-1感染症におけるT細胞免疫応答