A CD4 + T cell antagonist epitope down-regulates activating signaling proteins, up-regulates inhibitory signaling proteins and abrogates HIV-specific T cell function

Background CD4+ T cells are critically important in HIV infection, being both the primary cells infected by HIV and likely playing a direct or indirect role in helping control virus replication. Key areas of interest in HIV vaccine research are mechanisms of viral escape from the immune response. Interestingly, in HIV infection it has been shown that peptide sequence variation can reduce CD4+ T cell responses to the virus, and small changes to peptide sequences can transform agonist peptides into antagonist peptides.