Antibody recognition of SIVmac envelope peptides in plasma from macaques experimentally infected with SIV/Mne.
Four stretches of amino acid sequences encoded in conserved HIV-1 env domains and four parallel regions of the SIVmac env (two from gp120 and two from gp41/p32E) were fused to the NH2 terminus of beta-galactosidase by recombinant DNA techniques and used to analyze sera from three macaque species experimentally infected with SIV/Mne. All SIVmac env sequences were recognized by sera from the SIV/Mne-inoculated macaques. Western blot analysis performed with whole SIV/Mne, SIVmac, SIVagm, and HIV-1 antigens and sera from SIV/Mne-infected macaques also demonstrates that SIV/Mne is immunologically more closely related to SIVmac than to SIVagm or to HIV-1. Antibody levels to the gp120 NH2-terminal SIV-88 epitope appear to decrease in the infected Macaca nemestrina with progression of disease, as was also reported for the parallel HIV-1 epitope in HIV-1-infected individuals. Sera from all infected macaques reacted with the p32E-SIV-582 epitope (EKYLEDQAQLNAWGCAFRQVC). High titers to this immunodominant epitope could be detected at least 9 weeks postinfection and at a time when primarily the p28 and p32E antibodies were detectable in Western blots performed with whole disrupted SIV/Mne virus. In the majority of animals, antibody titers of 1:100,000 to SIV-582 develop during the infection and persist until death. Antibody responses to the SIV env epitopes in SIV/Mne-infected macaques thus resemble in many aspects (prevalence and immunogenicity) those observed previously for the corresponding HIV-1 env epitopes in HIV-1-infected humans.
Shafferman
A
A
Department of Virus Diseases, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, D.C. 20307.
Layne
A
A
Sadoff
J
J
Burke
D S
DS
Morton
W R
WR
Benveniste
R E
RE
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000276:immunology; D008251:Macaca; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012192:Retroviridae Infections / Q000276:immunology*; D012191:Retroviridae Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D015302:Simian Immunodeficiency Virus / Q000276:immunology*; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000276:immunology
D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D012191:Retroviridae Proteins; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins