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CTL recognition of HIV‐1‐infected cells via cross‐recognition of multiple overlapping peptides from a single 11‐mer Pol sequence

It is known that overlapping HIV‐1 peptides of different lengths can be presented by a given HLA class I molecule. However, the role of those peptides in CD8+ T cells recognition of HIV‐1‐infected cells remains unclear. Here we investigated the recognition of overlapping 8‐mer to 11‐mer peptides of Pol 155–165 by HLA‐B*54:01‐restricted CD8+ T cells. The analysis of ex vivo T cells using ELISPOT and tetramer binding assays showed that there were different patterns of CD8+ T‐cell responses to these peptides among chronically HIV‐1‐infected HLA‐B*54:01+ individuals, though the response to the 9‐mer peptide was the strongest among them. CD8+ T‐cell clones with TCRs specific for the 9‐mer, 10‐mer, and/or 11‐mer peptides effectively killed HIV‐1‐infected cells. Together, these results suggest that the 9‐mer and 10‐mer peptides could be predominantly presented by HLA‐B*54:01, though it remains possible that the 11‐mer peptide was also presented by this HLA allele. The present study demonstrates effective CD8+ T‐cell recognition of HIV‐1‐infected cells via presentation of multiple overlapping HIV‐1 peptides and cross‐recognition by the CD8+ T cells.