title: Epitope-vaccines: a new strategy to induce high levels of neutralizing antibodies against HIV-1.
abstract: Based on the experimental evidence that gp120 subunit vaccine did not protect individuals from HIV-1 infection, we suggested that epitope-vaccines of HIV-1 gp41 may be a new strategy to induce high levels of neutralizing antibodies against HIV-1, and characterised immunogenicity of epitope-vaccines. Two epitopes, RILAVERYLKD-epitope (aa586-596) on the N-domain and ELDKWA-epitope (aa669-674) on the C-domain of gp41, were demonstrated by us and others to induce protective activity. After vaccination course, the RILAVERYLKD-dimer epitope-vaccine [C(RILAVERYLKDG)2-BSA] induced strong epitope-specific antibody response by about 1:25,600 dilution, and the ELDKWA-tetramer epitope-vaccine [C-(ELDKWAG)4-BSA] could yet induce strong antibody response to ELDKWA-epitope by 1:12,800-25,600 dilution of antisera in mice, while rgp41 subunit vaccine induced very weak antibody response to both epitopes (1:400). In rabbit experiments, the titres of ELDKWA-epitope-specific antibody induced by ELDKWA-epitope-vaccine [C-(ELDKWAG)4-BSA] reached to 1:6,400, while rgp41 subunit vaccine induced very weak antibody response to this epitope and to P1 and P2 peptides (1:400). Moreover, the ELDKWA-epitope-specific antibodies in mice and rabbit antisera induced by epitope-vaccine could very strongly interact with P2 peptide sequence-corresponding to the C-domain of gp41 (dilution by 1:25,600), and the RILAVERYLKD-epitope-specific antibodies in mice antisera induced by epitope-vaccine could also very strongly interact with P1 peptide sequence-corresponding to the N-domain of gp41 (dilution by 1:102,400). All these results provided experimental evidence that epitope-vaccine may be a new general strategy to induce high levels of neutralizing antibodies against HIV-1 or other viruses.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Immunology, Research Center for Medical Research and School of Life Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, PR, China.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Dierich
authors.forename: Y H
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D016915:AIDS Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D018985:Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte / Q000276:immunology*; D015483:HIV Antibodies / Q000276:immunology*; D015700:HIV Envelope Protein gp41 / Q000276:immunology*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D016056:Immunodominant Epitopes / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009500:Neutralization Tests; D011817:Rabbits
chemical_list: D016915:AIDS Vaccines; D018985:Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte; D015483:HIV Antibodies; D015700:HIV Envelope Protein gp41; D016056:Immunodominant Epitopes