Figure 6.

Stimulation of cytotoxins by CTL epitopes on Fp9, Fp14, and Hp15 peptide pools, and their individual peptides. The ICS analyses for perforin (Perf, ○), granzyme A (GrzA, □), and granzyme B (GrzB, Δ) are shown for CD8⁺ T cells (A, D) and CD4⁺ T cells (B, C) from 5 HIV⁺ responders with or without ART. Two LTS/ART⁻, one LTS/ART⁺, one ST/ART⁺, and one ST/ART⁻ were first evaluated (A, B). Peptides tested included Fp9, Fp14, and/or Hp15 peptide pools or large 13–15mer peptides (A, B). Responses from 5 HIV⁺ responders of short-term HIV-infected subjects not on ART (ST/ART⁻) were tested using small 9–13mer peptides within Fp9–3, Fp14–1, Fp14–3, Fp14–4, and Sp14–1 (C, D). Note that Sp14 pool is a single 13mer peptide Sp14–1. Counterpart peptides are shown with blue-dashed box for Fp14–1a/Hp15–1c/Sp14–1c, purple-dashed box for Fp14–1b/Hp15–1a/Sp14–1b, and red-dashed box for Fp14–3/4f/Hp15–2/3a/Sp14–1a. The peptides tested with one less subject are denoted by (**), while their number of subjects and number of responses are denoted by (*). Each separate symbol color represents one subject, and each color-coded subject is shown with his/her infection status. The threshold for T cells expressing cytotoxin is set at >0.1% CD4⁺ or CD8⁺ T cells.