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World J Virology. May 12, 2015; 4(2): 124-133
Published online May 12, 2015. doi: 10.5501/wjv.v4.i2.124
Key role of human leukocyte antigen in modulating human immunodeficiency virus progression: An overview of the possible applications
Alba Grifoni, Carla Montesano, Vittorio Colizzi, Massimo Amicosante
Alba Grifoni, Carla Montesano, Vittorio Colizzi, Department of Biology, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, 00100 Rome, Italy
Massimo Amicosante, Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, 00133 Rome, Italy
Author contributions: Grifoni A generated the figures and wrote the manuscript; Montesano C and Colizzi V had equally contributed to the writing of the manuscript; Amicosante M designed the aim of the editorial and wrote the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest: The authors declare to have not commercial or other conflict of interest within the presentation of the data reported in the manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Massimo Amicosante, PhD, Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy. amicosan@uniroma2.it
Telephone: +39-6-72596202 Fax: +39-6-72596205
Received: November 9, 2014
Peer-review started: November 10, 2014
First decision: December 26, 2014
Revised: January 20, 2015
Accepted: February 10, 2015
Article in press: February 12, 2015
Published online: May 12, 2015
Processing time: 172 Days and 15.7 Hours
Abstract

Host and viral factors deeply influence the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease progression. Among them human leukocyte antigen (HLA) locus plays a key role at different levels. In fact, genes of the HLA locus have shown the peculiar capability to modulate both innate and adaptive immune responses. In particular, HLA class I molecules are recognized by CD8+ T-cells and natural killers (NK) cells towards the interaction with T cell receptor (TCR) and Killer Immunoglobulin Receptor (KIR) 3DL1 respectively. Polymorphisms within the different HLA alleles generate structural changes in HLA class I peptide-binding pockets. Amino acid changes in the peptide-binding pocket lead to the presentation of a different set of peptides to T and NK cells. This review summarizes the role of HLA in HIV progression toward acquired immunodeficiency disease syndrome and its receptors. Recently, many studies have been focused on determining the HLA binding-peptides. The novel use of immune-informatics tools, from the prediction of the HLA-bound peptides to the modification of the HLA-receptor complexes, is considered. A better knowledge of HLA peptide presentation and recognition are allowing new strategies for immune response manipulation to be applied against HIV virus.

Keywords: Human immunodeficiency virus progression; Human leukocyte antigen; Epitope; Immunoinformatics; CD8+ T lymphocytes

Core tip: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease progression depends on several host factors. Among them human leukocyte antigen (HLA) locus has a main role due to the peculiar capability to modulate both innate and adaptive immune response. In this review, the role of HLA molecules and its receptors in HIV progression toward acquired immunodeficiency disease syndrome is summarized. A better knowledge about HLA-peptide presentation and recognition by immune cells will open new applications in HIV vaccine and diagnostics design.