Evolution of HIV-1 in an HLA-B* 57-positive patient during virologic escape

JR Bailey, H Zhang, BW Wegweiser… - The Journal of …, 2007 - academic.oup.com
JR Bailey, H Zhang, BW Wegweiser, HC Yang, L Herrera, A Ahonkhai, TM Williams…
The Journal of infectious diseases, 2007academic.oup.com
Elite suppressors maintain normal CD4+ T cell counts and viral loads of< 50 copies of
human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) RNA per milliliter of plasma without antiviral
therapy. We report here a case of virologic escape in a human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-B*
57-positive patient shortly after seroconversion. This escape was associated with the
development of mutations in 2 HLA-B* 57-restricted CD8+ T cell Gag epitopes, reversion of
the drug-resistance mutation M184V, and reversion of a novel polymorphism in Vpu. The …
Abstract
Elite suppressors maintain normal CD4+ T cell counts and viral loads of <50 copies of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) RNA per milliliter of plasma without antiviral therapy. We report here a case of virologic escape in a human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-B*57-positive patient shortly after seroconversion. This escape was associated with the development of mutations in 2 HLA-B*57-restricted CD8+ T cell Gag epitopes, reversion of the drug-resistance mutation M184V, and reversion of a novel polymorphism in Vpu. The present study suggests that control of viral replication in elite suppressors may be due to HIV-1-specific CD8+ T cells and, in some cases, mutations that have subtle effects on viral fitness.
Oxford University Press