Journal
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE
Volume 200, Issue 3, Pages 307-319Publisher
ROCKEFELLER UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1084/jem.20040638
Keywords
CD8(+) T lymphocytes; CD4(+) T lymphocytes; hepatitis C; antigenic variation; epitopes
Categories
Funding
- NIAID NIH HHS [R01 AI39966, U19 AI048231, P30 AI54999, R01 AI47367, U19 AI48231, R01 AI039966, P30 AI054999] Funding Source: Medline
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Escape mutations are believed to be important contributors to immune evasion by rapidly evolving viruses such as hepatitis C virus (HCV). We show that the majority of HCV-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses directed against viral epitopes that escaped immune recognition in HCV-infected chimpanzees displayed a reduced CDR3 amino acid diversity when compared with responses in which no CTL epitope variation was detected during chronic infection or with those associated with protective immunity. Decreased T cell receptor (TCR) CDR3 amino acid diversity in chronic infection could be detected long before the appearance of viral escape mutations in the plasma. In both chronic and resolved infection, identical T cell receptor clonotypes were present in liver and peripheral blood. These findings provide a deeper understanding of the evolution of CTL epitope variations in chronic viral infections and highlight the importance of the generation and maintenance of a diverse TCR repertoire directed against individual epitopes.
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