Figure 5. Ex vivo intracellular cytokine staining–based polyfunctional profile comparison of KF11-specific responses restricted by HLA-B*57 versus HLA-E in chronically HIV-infected individuals.

(A) Heatmap showing the KF11 response restricted by HLA-E or B*57 in each of the 9 individuals tested (positive response was assigned a value of 1 and negative response a value of 0). (B) Net frequency of production of cytokine/effector molecules by CD8⁺ T cells responding to KF11 presented by the AEH cell line and the K562.B*57 cell line. Net frequency was calculated by subtraction of the no-peptide-pulse control of the identical APCs. (C) Heatmap of COMPASS functional analysis. (D and E) Data for functional score (FS) and polyfunctional score (PFS). Error bars represent mean ± SEM. Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test was used in B, D, and E to determine statistical significance.