Heterogeneity of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell Responses to Cytomegalovirus in HIV-Infected and HIV-Uninfected Men Who Have Sex With Men

Studies of T-cell immunity to human cytomegalovirus (CMV) primarily reflect anti-CMV pp65 or immediate early antigen 1 (IE-1) activity. We assessed responses of T cells from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)–negative and HIV-infected men to peptide pools spanning 19 CMV open reading frames selected because they previously corre-lated with total CMV-specific T-cell responses in healthy donors. Cells producing cytokines in response to pp65 or IE-1 together composed <12 % and <40 % of the total CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses to CMV, respectively. These proportions were generally similar regardless of HIV serostatus. Thus, analyses of total CMV-specific T-cell responses should ex-tend beyond pp65 and IE-1 regardless of HIV serostatus