In Vivo Selection of T-Cell Receptor Junctional Region Sequences by HLA-A2 Human T-Cell Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 Tax11-19 Peptide Complexes

Using HLA-peptide tetrameric complexes, we isolated human T-cell lymphotrophic virus type 1 Tax peptide-specific CD8(+) T cells ex vivo. Antigen-specific amino acid motifs were identified in the T-cell receptor Vβ CDR3 region of clonally expanded CD8(+) T cells. This result directly confirms the importance of the CDR3 region in determining the antigen specificity in vivo.