James Szinger

Dominant influence of HLA-B in mediating the potential co-evolution of HIV and hla

The extreme polymorphism in the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I region of the human genome is suggested to provide an advantage in pathogen defence mediated by CD8+ T cells. HLA class I molecules present pathogen-derived peptides on the surface of infected cells for recognition by CD8+ T cells. However, the relative contributions of HLA-A and -B alleles have not been evaluated. We performed a comprehensive analysis of the class I restricted CD8+ T-cell responses against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1), immune control of which is dependent upon virus-specific CD8+ T-cell activity. In 375 HIV-1-infected study subjects from southern Africa, a significantly greater number of CD8+ T-cell responses are HLA-B-restricted, compared to HLA-A (2.5-fold; P = 0.0033). Here we show that variation in viral set-point, in absolute CD4 count and, by inference, in rate of disease progression in the cohort, is strongly associated with particular HLA-B but not HLA-A allele expression (P < 0.0001 and P = 0.91, respectively). Moreover, substantially greater selection pressure is imposed on HIV-1 by HLA-B alleles than by HLA-A (4.4-fold, P = 0.0003). These data indicate that the principal focus of HIV-specific activity is at the HLA-B locus. Furthermore, HLA-B gene frequencies in the population are those likely to be most influenced by HIV disease, consistent with the observation that B alleles evolve more rapidly than A alleles. The dominant involvement of HLA-B in influencing HIV disease outcome is of specific relevance to the direction of HIV research and to vaccine design.

Mosaic vaccines elicit CD8 + T lymphocyte responses that confer enhanced immune coverage of diverse HIV strains in monkeys

An effective HIV vaccine must elicit immune responses that recognize genetically diverse viruses. It must generate CD8+ T lymphocytes that control HIV replication and CD4+ T lymphocytes that provide help for the generation and maintenance of both cellular and humoral immune responses against the virus. Creating immunogens that can elicit cellular immune responses against the genetically varied circulating isolates of HIV presents a key challenge for creating an HIV vaccine. Polyvalent mosaic immunogens derived by in silico recombination of natural strains of HIV are designed to induce cellular immune responses that recognize genetically diverse circulating virus isolates. Here we immunized rhesus monkeys by plasmid DNA prime and recombinant vaccinia virus boost with vaccine constructs expressing either consensus or polyvalent mosaic proteins. As compared to consensus immunogens, the mosaic immunogens elicited CD8+ T lymphocyte responses to more epitopes of each viral protein than did the consensus immunogens and to more variant sequences of CD8+ T lymphocyte epitopes. This increased breadth and depth of epitope recognition may contribute both to protection against infection by genetically diverse viruses and to the control of variant viruses that emerge as they mutate away from recognition by cytotoxic T lymphocytes.

Protective Efficacy of a Global HIV-1 Mosaic Vaccine against Heterologous SHIV Challenges in Rhesus Monkeys

The global diversity of HIV-1 represents a critical challenge facing HIV-1 vaccine development. HIV-1 mosaic antigens are bioinformatically optimized immunogens designed for improved coverage of HIV-1 diversity. However, the protective efficacy of such global HIV-1 vaccine antigens has not previously been evaluated. Here, we demonstrate the capacity of bivalent HIV-1 mosaic antigens to protect rhesus monkeys against acquisition of infection following heterologous challenges with the difficult-to-neutralize simian-human immunodeficiency virus SHIV-SF162P3. Adenovirus/poxvirus and adenovirus/adenovirus vector-based vaccines expressing HIV-1 mosaic Env, Gag, and Pol afforded a significant reduction in the per-exposure acquisition risk following repetitive, intrarectal SHIV-SF162P3 challenges. Protection against acquisition of infection correlated with vaccine-elicited binding, neutralizing, and functional nonneutralizing antibodies, suggesting that the coordinated activity of multiple antibody functions may contribute to protection against difficult-to-neutralize viruses. These data demonstrate the protective efficacy of HIV-1 mosaic antigens and suggest a potential strategy for the development of a global HIV-1 vaccine. PAPERCLIP:

Evidence of Differential HLA Class I-Mediated Viral Evolution in Functional and Accessory/Regulatory Genes of HIV-1

Despite the formidable mutational capacity and sequence diversity of HIV-1, evidence suggests that viral evolution in response to specific selective pressures follows generally predictable mutational pathways. Population-based analyses of clinically derived HIV sequences may be used to identify immune escape mutations in viral genes; however, prior attempts to identify such mutations have been complicated by the inability to discriminate active immune selection from virus founder effects. Furthermore, the association between mutations arising under in vivo immune selection and disease progression for highly variable pathogens such as HIV-1 remains incompletely understood. We applied a viral lineage-corrected analytical method to investigate HLA class I-associated sequence imprinting in HIV protease, reverse transcriptase (RT), Vpr, and Nef in a large cohort of chronically infected, antiretrovirally naïve individuals. A total of 478 unique HLA-associated polymorphisms were observed and organized into a series of “escape maps,” which identify known and putative cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes under selection pressure in vivo. Our data indicate that pathways to immune escape are predictable based on host HLA class I profile, and that epitope anchor residues are not the preferred sites of CTL escape. Results reveal differential contributions of immune imprinting to viral gene diversity, with Nef exhibiting far greater evidence for HLA class I-mediated selection compared to other genes. Moreover, these data reveal a significant, dose-dependent inverse correlation between HLA-associated polymorphisms and HIV disease stage as estimated by CD4+ T cell count. Identification of specific sites and patterns of HLA-associated polymorphisms across HIV protease, RT, Vpr, and Nef illuminates regions of the genes encoding these products under active immune selection pressure in vivo. The high density of HLA-associated polymorphisms in Nef compared to other genes investigated indicates differential HLA class I-driven evolution in different viral genes. The relationship between HLA class I-associated polymorphisms and lower CD4+ cell count suggests that immune escape correlates with disease status, supporting an essential role of maintenance of effective CTL responses in immune control of HIV-1. The design of preventative and therapeutic CTL-based vaccine approaches could incorporate information on predictable escape pathways.

Los Alamos Hepatitis C Immunology Database

The Los Alamos Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Sequence Database (http://hcv.lanl.gov or http://hcv-db.org) was officially launched in September 2003. The sister HCV Immunology Database was made public in September 2004. The HCV Immunology Database is based on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Immunology Database. The HCV Immunology Database contains a curated inventory of immunological epitopes in HCV and their interaction with the immune system, with associated retrieval and analysis tools. This article describes in detail the types of data and services that the new database offers, the tools provided and the database framework. The data and some of the HCV database tools are available for download for non-commercial use.

Mapping HIV-1 Vaccine Induced T-Cell Responses: Bias towards Less-Conserved Regions and Potential Impact on Vaccine Efficacy in the Step Study

T cell directed HIV vaccines are based upon the induction of CD8+ T cell memory responses that would be effective in inhibiting infection and subsequent replication of an infecting HIV-1 strain, a process that requires a match or near-match between the epitope induced by vaccination and the infecting viral strain. We compared the frequency and specificity of the CTL epitope responses elicited by the replication-defective Ad5 gag/pol/nef vaccine used in the Step trial with the likelihood of encountering those epitopes among recently sequenced Clade B isolates of HIV-1. Among vaccinees with detectable 15-mer peptide pool ELISpot responses, there was a median of four (one Gag, one Nef and two Pol) CD8 epitopes per vaccinee detected by 9-mer peptide ELISpot assay. Importantly, frequency analysis of the mapped epitopes indicated that there was a significant skewing of the T cell response; variable epitopes were detected more frequently than would be expected from an unbiased sampling of the vaccine sequences. Correspondingly, the most highly conserved epitopes in Gag, Pol, and Nef (defined by presence in >80% of sequences currently in the Los Alamos database www.hiv.lanl.gov) were detected at a lower frequency than unbiased sampling, similar to the frequency reported for responses to natural infection, suggesting potential epitope masking of these responses. This may be a generic mechanism used by the virus in both contexts to escape effective T cell immune surveillance. The disappointing results of the Step trial raise the bar for future HIV vaccine candidates. This report highlights the bias towards less-conserved epitopes present in the same vaccine used in the Step trial. Development of vaccine strategies that can elicit a greater breadth of responses, and towards conserved regions of the genome in particular, are critical requirements for effective T-cell based vaccines against HIV-1. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00849680, A Study of Safety, Tolerability, and Immunogenicity of the MRKAd5 Gag/Pol/Nef Vaccine in Healthy Adults.

Full-Length HIV-1 Immunogens Induce Greater Magnitude and Comparable Breadth of T Lymphocyte Responses to Conserved HIV-1 Regions Compared with Conserved-Region-Only HIV-1 Immunogens in Rhesus Monkeys

ABSTRACT A global HIV-1 vaccine will likely need to induce immune responses against conserved HIV-1 regions to contend with the profound genetic diversity of HIV-1. Here we evaluated the capacity of immunogens consisting of only highly conserved HIV-1 sequences that are aimed at focusing cellular immune responses on these potentially critical regions. We assessed in rhesus monkeys the breadth and magnitude of T lymphocyte responses elicited by adenovirus vectors expressing either full-length HIV-1 Gag/Pol/Env immunogens or concatenated immunogens consisting of only highly conserved HIV-1 sequences. Surprisingly, we found that the full-length immunogens induced comparable breadth (P = 1.0) and greater magnitude (P = 0.01) of CD8+ T lymphocyte responses against conserved HIV-1 regions compared with the conserved-region-only immunogens. Moreover, the full-length immunogens induced a 5-fold increased total breadth of HIV-1-specific T lymphocyte responses compared with the conserved-region-only immunogens (P = 0.007). These results suggest that full-length HIV-1 immunogens elicit a substantially increased magnitude and breadth of cellular immune responses compared with conserved-region-only HIV-1 immunogens, including greater magnitude and comparable breadth of responses against conserved sequences.

Cross-Reactive CD8 + T Cell Epitopes Identified in US Adolescent Minorities

Vaccines designed to bring forth CD8+ T cell responses in different racial and ethnic groups will require inclusion of T cell epitopes presented by various MHC class I molecules. This study was designed to identify new CD8+ T cell epitopes in HIV-infected African American and Hispanic youth as well as to determine the frequency of responses to both novel and previously described HIV-1 epitopes in a cohort of racially and ethnically diverse individuals. We found 8 MHC class I-restricted CD8+ T cell epitopes that had not been previously described, another 8 epitopes that were restricted by class I alleles not previously associated with these epitopes, and 8 additional epitopes that have been described previously. In a larger cohort, we demonstrated that 11 (69%) of these 16 newly described immunogens were recognized by individuals of different race or ethnicity. Most HIV-1-specific CD8+ T cell epitopes identified were either novel or restricted by alternative MHC class I alleles. Frequent recognition of several of these CTL epitopes in persons of diverse racial backgrounds bodes well for the development of a broadly reactive HIV-1 vaccine.

T cell responses in HIV type 1-infected adolescent minorities share similar epitope specificities with whites despite significant differences in HLA class I alleles.

African-Americans (AFAM) and Hispanics (HIS) represent only 13% and 12% of the U.S. population but 54% and 19%, respectively, of annually incident HIV-1 infections in the United States. The 88 patients in the current study were from U.S. racial or ethnic minority groups (72% African-American, 17% Hispanic), female (85%), and adolescent (mean age 20 years). Their HLA allele distributions were distinct from patterns in U.S. whites. Overall, HIV-1-specific T cell responses were observed in 91% of participants: 75% recognized peptides in Gag, 67% Pol, 57% Nef, and 41% Env. The patients recognized 87 (36%) of 244 Gag, Pol, Env, or Nef peptides tested. Similar to what has been seen in white cohorts, epitope-rich peptide clusters were identified within conserved functional domains in Gag matrix, Gag capsid, Pol reverse transcriptase, and Nef. Peptides representing variable regions from within the B subtype or with more changes from the B subtype consensus sequence were less likely to stimulate a positive T cell response. A small percentage (17%) of unique T cell responses was found in this cohort that displayed no previously known T cell epitopes. Dominant responses generally overlapped with epitope-rich regions in HIV-1 described previously for whites, although many of these peptides were likely restricted by HLA class I alleles not previously associated with these epitopes. Hence host genetic variation among different racial groups may have less impact on the utility of candidate HIV-1 vaccines than previously suspected.

Integrated sequence and immunology filovirus database at Los Alamos

The Ebola outbreak of 2013–15 infected more than 28 000 people and claimed more lives than all previous filovirus outbreaks combined. Governmental agencies, clinical teams, and the world scientific community pulled together in a multifaceted response ranging from prevention and disease control, to evaluating vaccines and therapeutics in human trials. As this epidemic is finally coming to a close, refocusing on long-term prevention strategies becomes paramount. Given the very real threat of future filovirus outbreaks, and the inherent uncertainty of the next outbreak virus and geographic location, it is prudent to consider the extent and implications of known natural diversity in advancing vaccines and therapeutic approaches. To facilitate such consideration, we have updated and enhanced the content of the filovirus portion of Los Alamos Hemorrhagic Fever Viruses Database. We have integrated and performed baseline analysis of all family Filoviridae sequences deposited into GenBank, with associated immune response data, and metadata, and we have added new computational tools with web-interfaces to assist users with analysis. Here, we (i) describe the main features of updated database, (ii) provide integrated views and some basic analyses summarizing evolutionary patterns as they relate to geo-temporal data captured in the database and (iii) highlight the most conserved regions in the proteome that may be useful for a T cell vaccine strategy. Database URL: www.hfv.lanl.gov