Dominant CTL epitopes were identified using mitogen-stimulated T-cell lines derived from PBMCs at the time of enrollment (see the Materials and Methods). Up to three dominant epitope peptides were used to selectively expand T cells for infusion.

Abbreviation: ND, not done.

Epitopes used to expand the infused cells are in bold. Epitopes recognized by CTLs are likely to be 8- to 11-aa peptides contained in the larger peptides used for screening. These epitopes, based on the sequences of laboratory isolates of HIV, are in relatively conserved regions of the virus. Patients may also recognize additional epitopes in variable regions of the isolates with which they are infected. Epitopes defined for two overlapping peptides may be contained in the 10-aa overlap region. Amino acid numbering as in Ratner et al.40 

Data are for 4-hour CTL assay performed at an E:T ratio of 10:1. Targets were either preincubated with HIV peptides (for nef peptides only) or infected with HIV-vaccinia recombinants (see the Materials and Methods). Background lysis of targets preincubated with no peptide or infected with vaccinia-lacZ, respectively, was subtracted for HIV-specific percent cytotoxicity.

Unambiguous tissue typing for the second allele of this patient was not possible.