Yanhua Tang

TL;DR: Data show that the process of accumulation of escape mutations within HIV is not inevitable, and complex epitope- and residue-specific selection forces, including CTL-mediated positive selection pressure and virus-mediated purifying selection, operate in tandem to shape HIV evolution at the population level.

TL;DR: Investigation of mother–child transmission in the setting of HLA-B27 expression suggests that CTL escape mutations in epitopes associated with suppression of viraemia will accumulate as the epidemic progresses, and therefore have important implications for vaccine design.

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that allele-associated sequence variation within the flanking region of CTL epitopes can alter antigen processing and is of major relevance in the construction of vaccine sequences.

TL;DR: HIV-1 infection in persons expressing human histocompatibility leukocyte antigen (HLA)-A*0201 was used as a means of addressing the specificity of the initial CTL response induced in acute infection and data show that the CTL responses that are present and that even may dominate in chronic infection may differ substantially from those that constitute the initial antiviral C TL response.

TL;DR: A perinatally HIV-infected child who maintained a plasma viral load of <400 copies/ml for almost a decade until a nonbinding escape mutation emerged within the immunodominant CTL epitope subsequently experienced a reemergence of HIV-1 viremia accompanied by a marked increase in the number of C TL epitopes targeted.