Fig 4.

Effects of IMiDs on the antigen sensitivity of HIV-specific CD8⁺ T cells. Purified CD8⁺ T cells were stimulated with DCs electroporated with Gag-encoding mRNA. After 10 days of stimulation, the cells were cocultured with DCs pulsed with a 5-fold serial dilution of a Gag or a Nef peptide for which a T-cell response was previously detected by an ex vivo ELISpot. IFN-γ secretion in the culture supernatants was detected by ELISA. Error bars indicate the SEM for 3 replicate wells. The IFN-γ concentration in response to peptide-pulsed DCs is indicated on the graphs shown in panel A. Horizontal lines on the graphs indicate an IFN-γ production of 50 pg/ml (the cutoff for positivity). The percentage of the maximal IFN-γ concentration reached upon coculture with peptide-pulsed DCs is shown on the graphs in panel B. Gray curves indicate that the IFN-γ concentration remained below 50 pg/ml for all peptide concentrations. Patient numbers correspond to the patient numbers shown in Fig. 3.