As the major targets of immunity have been changing from extracellular antigens, such as harmful bacteria and their toxins, to intracellular events caused by viral genes or oncogenes, the main stream of immunology appears to have been shifted from humoral arm to cellular arm. The key effectors of the latter arm are T lymphcytes, in particular CD8
+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) which can recognize fragmented viral parts or tumor antigens and may control intracellular virus replication or tumor progression. In this review, by modeling human immune deficiency virus (HIV) envelope protein, possible molecular control of cellular immune responses to viral components will be discussed.
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