A systematic review of T cell epitopes defined from the proteome of human immunodeficiency virus

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) persists as a formidable and far - reaching threat without a cure. T cells are crucial for antiviral immunity and pathology in HIV patients, with specific T cell epitopes potentially key to effective therapies and HIV cure methods.

Identifying sufficient T-cell epitopes within the HIV proteome holds great significance. It can not only substantially accelerate the development of T-cell epitope-based vaccines but also enable a highly precise evaluation of the host's HIV-specific cellular immunity. This research provides an overview of functionally verified T-cell epitopes derived from HIV antigens, the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles, as well as the screening and identification strategies.

Totally, 239 and 82 epitopes have been verified for CD8⁺ T-cell and CD4⁺ T-cell respectively by functional experiments. The majority are presented by various HLA supertypes, such as HLA-B35, B5301, A6802 or A0201, and DRB1 molecules. Furthermore, 74 % of the epitopes for CD8⁺T-cell belong to Gag, Pol, as well as Nef Protein while 68 % of the CD4⁺ T-cell epitopes originate from Gag protein. Antigenic peptides of HIV-1 subtypes A/B/C/D/CRF01_AE account for 11.43 %, 58.26 %, 21.69 %, 4.96 %, and 3.65 %, respectively.

The 321 T-cell epitope repertoires of HIV encompass the HLA polymorphisms of the main populations and subtypes in a particular geographical area. These epitope catalogs provide strong support for researching therapeutic vaccines, specific T-cell detection, and the interaction mechanism between HIV and the immune system. However, the limitations of the identified T-cell epitope library, the polymorphism of HLA molecules, and the high mutation rate of HIV require more research to cover the entire HIV proteome and the comprehensive landscape of T-cell epitopes in global patients.