Broadly targeted CD8 + T cell responses restricted by major histocompatibility complex E
Hansen SG., Wu HL., Burwitz BJ., Hughes CM., Hammond KB., Ventura AB., Reed JS., Gilbride RM., Ainslie E., Morrow DW., Ford JC., Selseth AN., Pathak R., Malouli D., Legasse AW., Axthelm MK., Nelson JA., Gillespie GM., Walters LC., Brackenridge S., Sharpe HR., López CA., Früh K., Korber BT., McMichael AJ., Gnanakaran S., Sacha JB., Picker LJ.
An unconventional route to protection One promising approach toward an HIV-1 vaccine involves infecting people with cytomegalovirus engineered to express proteins from HIV-1. This approach, which works by eliciting virus-killing CD8 + T cells, provides robust protection in nonhuman primate models. Hansen et al. have found out why this approach is so effective. Normally, peptide antigens presented by major histocompatibility complex-1a (MHC-Ia) activate CD8 + T cells. In vaccinated monkeys, however, CD8 + T cells reacted to peptide antigens presented by MHC-E molecules instead. Moreover, MHC-E could present a much wider range of peptides than MHC-Ia. Science , this issue p. 714