Extended Data Fig. 8: Evaluation of the susceptibility of HIV-1 reservoir cells to cytotoxic effects of HIV-1-specific CD8⁺ T cell clones.

(A): Patient-derived memory CD4⁺ T cells were pulsed with indicated epitopic peptides, followed by exposure to HIV-1-specific CD8⁺ T cell clones matched to the indicated autologous HLA class I alleles and recognizing the epitopic peptides used for target cell pulsing. Following incubation for 16 h, viable CD3⁺ CD4⁺ T cells were sorted and subjected to assessments of intact proviruses using the IPDA. Data indicate frequencies of intact proviruses in patient-derived cells, relative to autologous control cells incubated with the same antigen-specific CD8⁺ T cell clones in the absence of prior peptide pulsing. Frequencies of total HIV-1 DNA in sorted cells, evaluated by the IPDA, are shown for comparison. Experiments were conducted at indicated effector-to-target cell ratios, taking into consideration the CTL clone and target cell availability and the killing potency of the CTL clones. L. O. D. Limit of detection, reflecting the number of cells analyzed without target identification. (B): Summary of data shown in A. Geometric symbols reflect individual CTL and target cell pairs. p-value adjusted for multiple comparison was determined by two-sided Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test.