Major CD4 epitopes involved in anti-CD4 T-cell autoimmunity in HIV-1 patients

We studied HIV-positive and -negative subjects for T-cell reactivity to rCD4, and found that 80% of 25 tested HIV-infected patients and 25% of controls manifested T-cell proliferation responses to rCD4. We mapped the major CD4 immunogenic epitopes among the CD4+ responders of both groups by testing T-cell proliferation responses to 31 synthetic overlapping peptides from the human CD4 molecule. Such responses to p1, p4, p14, p21, p28 and p29 were significantly higher in the eight infected patients and, with the exception of p14, these peptides differed from those found in three HIV-negative controls (p11, p14 and p27). Peptides p1, p28 and p29 are major immunogenic epitopes. Our findings suggest: (1) that HIV infection is associated with T-cell reactivity to CD4; and (2) that the use of synthetic CD4 peptides to replace the complete CD4 molecule may therefore lead to a cost-effective T-cell vaccination for HIV-positive patients exhibiting anti-CD4 autoimmunity, as well as to the development of complimentary TCR peptides for future peptide vaccinations.