“super” cytotoxic t-lymphocyte clones for control of hiv infection
One of the hallmarks of HIV infection is rapid mutation and subsequent “escape” from adaptive immune responses–in particular the CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) response, which has been shown to be very important in the control of HIV replication in vivo. Despite the ultimate failure of CTL responses to keep up with the escape mutations, CTL responses are still being investigated as a possible therapeutic tool. A recent article by A Varela-Rohena et al in Nature Medicine has demonstrated the feasibility of generating “super” CTL responses with extremely high affinity to the HIV peptide/MHC-I complex that can not only recognize a cognate epitope but also epitopes with escape mutations.
Why is this important? Well, it gives re-newed hope for using vaccine-type strategies for using the immune system to overcome the barrier of genetic diversity and eradicate HIV infection. Cool stuff!
