HIV Antigen-Reactive T Cells Detected by Antigen-Induced Interferon γ Secretion

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Abstract
The T cell repertoire to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was studied in HIV-infected patients of different clinical stages by the detection and enumeration of cells that secreted interferon γ (IFN-γ) in short-term cultures of blood mononuclear cells after stimulation in vitro with the HIV recombinant antigens pBl, pl21, p24–15, gp160bac, and the HIV V3 loop peptide. T cell reactivities to cytomegalovirus (CMV) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis-purified protein derivative (PPD) were examined in parallel. Among 29 patients with HIV infection, 48% had blood cells recognizing one or more of the five HIV antigens. The mean numbers of HIV antigen-reactive T cells varied between 1/~6000 blood cells for pBl and l/~20,000 cells for p24-15. None of the five HIV antigens studied was identified as an immunodominant T cell epitope in HIV infection. T cells from 20% of the patients responded to all five HIV antigens in parallel, but the antigen preferentially recognized varied from patient to patient. Those with more advanced disease had a tendency to lower numbers of HIV antigen-reactive T cells. Most HIV-infected patients had both CMV-and PPD-reactive T cells, but numbers were significantly lower in more advanced disease. It should be possible to adopt the present method to evaluate fine specificities of the T cell repertoire to other antigens and to study the involvement of other cytokines besides IFN-γ, for example, the Th2 cell-related cytokine interleukin 4.

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