A human T-T-cell hybridoma-derived lymphocyte chemoattractant factor

The CD8+ T Cell Noncytotoxic Antiviral Responses

The CD8+ T cell noncytotoxic antiviral response (CNAR) was discovered during studies of asymptomatic HIV-infected subjects more than 30 years ago. In contrast to CD8+ T cell cytotoxic lymphocyte (CTL) activity, CNAR suppresses HIV replication without target cell killing. This activity has characteristics of innate immunity: it acts on all retroviruses and thus is neither epitope specific nor HLA restricted. The HIV-associated CNAR does not affect other virus families. It is mediated, at least in part, by a CD8+ T cell antiviral factor (CAF) that blocks HIV transcription. A variety of assays used to measure CNAR/CAF and the effects on other retrovirus infections are described. Notably, CD8+ T cell noncytotoxic antiviral responses have now been observed with other virus families but are mediated by different cytokines. Characterizing the protein structure of CAF has been challenging despite many biologic, immunologic, and molecular studies. It represents a low-abundance protein that may be identified by future next-generation sequencing approaches. Since CNAR/CAF is a natural noncytotoxic activity, it could provide promising strategies for HIV/AIDS therapy, cure, and prevention.

Molecular cloning and expression of feline interleukin-16

Human IL-16 (hIL-16) is a homotetrameric cytokine with chemotactic properties towards cells expressing the CD4 receptor. This chemotactic cytokine plays an important role in attracting cells of the immune system to the site where CD8+ T-cells were activated for example by a foreign antigen. In addition to the chemotactic activity, hIL-16 also induces expression of IL-2 receptor, increasing the responsiveness to IL-2 and therefore implying a role for specific expansion of the CD4+ T-cell population in an area of induced inflammation. In this report we describe the cloning, sequencing and the expression of feline IL-16 (fIL-16). At the nucleotide level, fIL-16 shows 84.6 and 84.5%, on the amino acid level 93 and 91.5% identity to the human and African green monkey (agm) IL-16, respectively.