The expansion ability but not the quality of HIV‐specific CD8+ T cells is associated with protective human leucocyte antigen class I alleles in long‐term non‐progressors

Summary Studies in long-term non-progressors (LTNP) have suggested that the quality of the CD8+ response may involve protective human leucocyte antigen (HLA) class I alleles. However, studies examining the expansion ability of different functional CD8+ T cells and their association with HLA class I alleles are lacking. LTNP, untreated typical progressors (TP) and patients successfully on highly active retroviral therapy (HAART) during 1 year (HP) were included. HLA class I typing was performed using a sequence-specific primer assay. Functional subsets of Gag- and Nef-specific CD8+ cells were analysed based on the production of macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1β, tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interleukin (IL)-2. Their expansion abilities were evaluated after 10-day culture in the presence of Gag and Nef human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) peptides. No differences were seen when comparing quantitative and qualitative HIV-specific CD8+ T cell responses according to the presence/absence of protective HLA alleles (B*58 and B*27 supertypes) in each group. However, LTNP with protective HLA alleles showed a higher expansion ability of Gag-specific MIP+ TNF+ IL-2+ T cells and Nef-specific MIP+ TNF+ IL-2+. HLA-B*5701+LTNP displayed a higher expansion ability of Gag and Nef-specific MIP+ TNF− IL-2+ T cells than HLA-B*5701-LTNP. This was not so for HLA-B*2705. No differences were seen in the expansion ability according to the presence/absence of protective HLA alleles in TP and HP. The expansion ability of polyfunctional CD8+ T cells is modulated by HLA class I alleles and targeted protein. LTNP with HLA class I protective alleles (mainly B*5701) display better expansion ability of polyfunctional HIV-specific CD8+ T cells than the rest, suggesting that factors other than HLA-B*5701 must contribute to the control of viral replication in other LTNP. Furthermore, these attributes of HIV-specific CD8+ T are not restored by HAART; thus, adjuvant therapies and vaccines that induce and/or normalize the expansion ability of HIV-specific T cells are required.