Priming of HIV-specific CTLs with HIV-1ΔEN–transduced DCs.

CD8⁺ T cells from HLA-A2.1 donors were cocultivated with HIV-1ΔEN–transduced DCs (transduction efficiency: more than or equal to 40%) for up to 5 weeks. After weekly restimulation of T cells with transduced DCs and expansion of CTLs (effector cells, E) by addition of IL-2 and IL-7, HIV-specific cytotoxicity was determined by a standard chromium (⁵¹Cr) release assay at week 1 (A) and week 5 (B) after coculture. HIV-1– infected (HIV-J) or –uninfected A2.1 Jurkat cells (J) were used as target cells (T). Data are from one representative experiment (donor IVI-1) of 3.