Figure 3

Increased breadth of responses to beneficial OLP results in gradually reduced viral loads and is independent of cohort and HLA-B27, -57, -B58, -B81 and -B63. (A) The number of responses to beneficial OLP in the clade C cohort in Durban was determined for each individual and compared to viral loads. An increased breadth of responses to the 22 beneficial OLP was associated with reduced viral loads (ANOVA, p < 0.0001). (B) This association remained equally stable after removing all individuals expressing known beneficial HLA allele (HLA-B27, -B57, -B5801, -B63, -B81) from the analysis (ANOVA, p < 0.0001). (C) The set of 26 beneficial and 17 non-beneficial OLP identified in the clade B infected cohort in Lima, Peru was tested in a second clade B infected cohort in Barcelona. HIV controllers showed a significantly higher focus of responses on the 22 beneficial OLP (61% of all responses to the 43 OLP) while non-controllers reacted predominantly with the non-beneficial OLP (only 29% of all responses targeting beneficial OLP). The Barcelona cohort did not included subject expressing any HLA allele previously associated with relative control of HIV-1 (p = 0.0011, Mann Whitney).