Fig 7.

MDC1 facilitate immune focusing toward conserved and topologically important epitopes. MDC1 were loaded with a pool of 14–21mer peptides containing either a mix of overlapping full-length HIV-1 Gag epitopes (Gag) or with the pool of Network peptides also containing Gag-associated epitopes (Network Gag), and each were used separately to initiate the activation (afferent) and long-term expansion of responsive T cells. Each dot represents the mean (a) or the sum (b) of the efferent readout responses (IFNγ SFU/10⁶ cells) of each study participant induced against the individual 9–13mer Gag CTL epitopes derived from stimulator peptides common to both afferent stimulator peptide pools. ***p<0.001, **p<0.01 [determined by Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test].