%0 Journal Article %J J Immunol %D 2000 %T Functional equivalency of B7-1 and B7-2 for costimulating plasmid DNA vaccine-elicited CTL responses. %A Santra, S %A Barouch, D H %A Jackson, S S %A Kuroda, M J %A Schmitz, J E %A Lifton, M A %A Sharpe, A. H. %A Letvin, N L %K Adjuvants, Immunologic %K AIDS Vaccines %K Amino Acid Sequence %K Animals %K Antigens, CD %K Antigens, CD80 %K Antigens, CD86 %K Cytotoxicity, Immunologic %K Dose-Response Relationship, Immunologic %K Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte %K HIV Envelope Protein gp120 %K HIV-1 %K Injections, Intramuscular %K Kinetics %K Lymphocyte Activation %K Membrane Glycoproteins %K Mice %K Mice, Inbred BALB C %K Mice, Knockout %K Molecular Sequence Data %K Plasmids %K T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic %K Vaccines, DNA %X A costimulatory signal in addition to an Ag-specific stimulus is required for optimal activation of T lymphocytes. CD28, the primary positive costimulatory receptor on T cells, has two identified ligands, B7-1 and B7-2. Whether B7-1 and B7-2 have identical, overlapping, or distinct functions remains unresolved. In this study, we show that mice lacking B7-2 were unable to generate CTL responses following immunization with a plasmid DNA vaccine. The ability of these B7-2-deficient mice to generate CTL responses following plasmid gp120 DNA vaccination was fully reconstituted by coadministering either a plasmid expressing B7-2 or B7-1. Moreover, the ability to generate CTL responses following plasmid DNA vaccination in mice lacking both B7-1 and B7-2 could be reconstituted by administering either plasmid B7-1 or plasmid B7-2 with the vaccine construct. These data demonstrate that either B7-1 or B7-2 administered concurrently with a plasmid DNA vaccine can fully costimulate vaccine-elicited CTL responses. Functional differences between B7-1 and B7-2 observed in vivo therefore may not reflect inherent differences in the interactions of CD28 with these ligands. %B J Immunol %V 165 %P 6791-5 %8 2000 Dec 15 %G eng %N 12 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11120800?dopt=Abstract