Functional Properties of Cytotoxic T Cells that Suppress HIV: The Good And The Bad

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

An individual with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) attacks the infection with specialised white blood cells called cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). Despite making large numbers of CTL, HIV infection cannot be cured or even prevented from progressing to AIDS. However, some individuals remain well for ten years after infection, and others succumb after a few months. We propose that this variable progression time between individuals is because some cytotoxic T cells are more effective at suppressing virus than others. Defining the characterisitcs of exactly what makes a CTL effective is very important to design an HIV vaccine that works. We aim to do this by studying CTL from volunteers with HIV, immortalised into clones. We will then compare how effectively each CTL clone suppresses HIV replication in infected cells in the laboratory. By identifying the most effective CTL clones and comparing them with less effective CTL clones, we can define those characteristics associated with good HIV suppression. One method we will use analyses the expression of thousands of genes simultaneously. This may identify a unique fingerprint for Good CTL, that can open new areas of research into the proteins that Good CTL express and may even identify new anti-viral factors, or drug targets.