Predominant recognition of OLP-038 in Cw*0102+ve subjects.

<p>ELISpot responses in Cw0102+ve and Cw0102-ve subjects were tested. The majority of Cw*0102+ve subjects (25/33; 76 percent) exhibited an ELISpot response against OLP-038, versus a minority of the Cw*0102-ve subjects (4/67; 6 percent); <i>p</i><0.0001.</p

Cw*0102 associated footprints in the YI9 epitope.

<p>Gag sequences were generated from all 100 subjects and sequence variation within the YI9 epitope compared between Cw*0102+ve and Cw*0102-ve subjects. Mutations in YI9 were significantly elevated in subjects expressing Cw*0102 (p = 0.001), with the V280X and S281G mutations predominating.</p

Clinical characteristics of HIV-1 clade CRF01_AE infected subjects (N = 100).

<p>Clinical characteristics of HIV-1 clade CRF01_AE infected subjects (N = 100).</p

Identification of <i>the novel Cw*0102-restricted CD8 epitope ₂₇₇YI9₂₈₅</i>.

<p>(A) Autologous BLCL from subject 0578 who strongly responded to OLP-038, and BLCL targets from 6 other individuals expressing one of subject 0578 HLA alleles, were tested for their ability to recognize peptide-pulsed targets using a ⁵¹Cr-release assay. Responses were only detected in the presence of HLA-Cw*0102, confirming this as the restricting HLA allele. The optimal CD8 epitope within OLP-038 was then fined mapped using both (B) ELISpot and (C) ⁵¹Cr-release assays, identifying the 9-mer YI9 as the minimal optimal epitope.</p

Cw*0102-associated mutations in YI9 impair CD8+ T cell recognition.

<p>BLCL from Cw*0102+ve subjects 5043 and 5070 were pulsed with serial dilutions of wildtype and variant forms of YI9 and tested for recognition by ELISpot assay. P2 mutation S278K, P4 mutation V280T, and P5 mutation S281G all impaired recognition, with the P2 anchor mutation S278K exhibiting consistently the most significant impairment.</p