CD8A and HIV-1 infection: Little is known about the mechanisms that determine immunodominant T cell responses in HIV-1 infection, but several factors—including the intracellular expression levels of the respective HIV-1 protein, the kinetics by which an epitope is processed, its binding affinity to the HLA class I molecule, and the binding affinity of the peptide–HLA class I complex to the CD8+ T cell receptor and its repertoire—have been implicated in the shaping of immunodominance patterns [38,39].