Immune Screening Identifies Novel T Cell Targets Encoded by Antisense Reading Frames of HIV-1

Abstract

Cytotoxic-T lymphocyte (CTL) responses to epitopes in alternative HIV reading frames have been reported. However, the extent of CTL responses to putative proteins encoded in antisense reading frames is unknown. Using sequence alignments and computational approaches, we here predict five potential antisense HIV proteins and characterize common CTL responses against them. Results suggest that antisense-derived sequences are commonly transcribed and translated and could encode functional proteins that contain important targets of anti-HIV cellular immunity.