title: Mapping of immunodominant epitopes of the HIV-1 and HIV-2 integrase proteins by recombinant proteins and synthetic peptides.
abstract: Different parts of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 and type 2 (HIV-1 and HIV-2) integrase proteins were expressed as TrpE fusion proteins in Escherichia coli and used to screen human sera. In the immunoblot, all HIV/integrase-positive human sera tested reacted with the carboxy-terminal third of the integrase protein. Furthermore, they crossreacted with the same part of the heterologous protein. Half (50%) of the HIV-1/integrase-positive sera additionally detected antigenic epitopes in the amino-terminal third of the HIV-1 protein. Two of the recombinant proteins were used to generate polyclonal rabbit sera, which react with type-common epitopes of both integrase proteins. To map the B-cell epitopes of the HIV integrase proteins in more detail, overlapping decapeptides representing the entire integrase proteins of HIV-1 and HIV-2 were synthesized and used in a pin-based oligopeptide ELISA to scan human sera. This method can define three potential immunogenic epitopes of the HIV-1 integrase and one potential epitope of the HIV-2 integrase. The immunodominant epitopes of the HIV-1 integrase, one localized in the amino-terminal (IDKAQDEHEKYHSNWRAM), one in the central (QMAVFIHNFKRKGGIGGY), and one in the carboxy-terminal (AVVIQDNSDIKVVPRRK) part of the protein were synthesized as oligopeptides and used to test a larger panel of human sera in ELISA (156 HIV-1+ sera and 104 HIV-1- sera). The amino- and the carboxy-terminal epitopes were of equivalent reactivity, while the central part of the HIV-1 integrase seems to be less immunogenic. Nearly 90% of the HIV-1/integrase-positive human sera could be detected by a combination of these three peptides.
authors.affiliation: Abteilung Virologie, Universitätsklinikum, Homburg/Saar, Germany.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vinga-Martins
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Werno
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Roenspeck
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pauli
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mueller-Lantzsch
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D004254:DNA Nucleotidyltransferases / Q000276:immunology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D004926:Escherichia coli; D006679:HIV Seropositivity / Q000276:immunology; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000201:enzymology / Q000276:immunology*; D015498:HIV-2 / Q000201:enzymology / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D015151:Immunoblotting; D016056:Immunodominant Epitopes / Q000276:immunology*; D019426:Integrases; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000276:immunology; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D016056:Immunodominant Epitopes; D010455:Peptides; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D004254:DNA Nucleotidyltransferases; D019426:Integrases