J Virol. 2000 Nov; 74(21):10249-55.

PubMed ID: 11024158

A significant number of human immunodeficiency virus epitope-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes detected by tetramer binding do not produce gamma interferon

Goepfert PA, Bansal A, Edwards BH, Ritter GD Jr, Tellez I, McPherson SA, Sabbaj S, Mulligan MJ

Despite the seemingly important role of cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) responses in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease pathogenesis, their measurement has relied on a variety of different techniques. We utilized three separate methodologies for the detection of CTLs in a cohort of HIV-infected individuals who were also human leukocyte antigen A2 (HLA-A2) positive. Among the different CTL assays, a correlation was seen only when the Gag epitope-specific HLA A*0201-restricted tetramer assay was compared with the ELISPOT assay performed after stimulation with the Gag epitope; however, this correlation was of borderline statistical significance. On average, the tetramer reagent detected a 10-fold-higher number of cells than were seen to produce gamma interferon by the ELISPOT assay. The implications of this CTL assay comparison and the possibility of phenotypic differences in HIV-specific CD8(+) T lymphocytes are discussed.