Different vaccine vectors delivering the same antigen elicit CD8 ⁺ T cell responses with distinct clonotype and epitope specificity

Prime-boost immunization with gene-based vectors has been developed to generate more effective vaccines for AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. Although these vectors elicit potent T cell responses, the mechanisms by which they stimulate immunity are not well understood. In this study, we show that immunization by a single gene product, HIV-1 envelope, with alternative vector combinations elicits CD8⁺ cells with different fine specificities and kinetics of mobilization. Vaccine-induced CD8⁺ T cells recognized overlapping third V region loop peptides. Unexpectedly, two anchor variants bound H-2D^d better than the native sequences, and clones with distinct specificities were elicited by alternative vectors. X-ray crystallography revealed major differences in solvent exposure of MHC-bound peptide epitopes, suggesting that processed HIV-1 envelope gave rise to MHC-I/peptide conformations recognized by distinct CD8⁺ T cell populations. These findings suggest that different gene-based vectors generate peptides with alternative conformations within MHC-I that elicit distinct T cell responses after vaccination.