Overcoming original (antigenic) sin.
Original antigenic sin describes a phenomenon in which the antibody response elicited in an individual after a secondary viral infection reacts more strongly to the viral variant that originally infected the individual. As T helper cells play critical roles in promoting antibody responses, a similar phenomenon may hold true for T helper cell responses. This concept is particularly relevant to the development of vaccines against viruses such as human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis C virus, in which myriad viral variants are present throughout the human population. We have compared the effects of priming the immune system with a single peptide epitope or with a cocktail of related peptides based on the epitope. Our data demonstrate that immunization with multiple peptide variants expands a more broadly reactive and durable T helper cell response than does immunization with a single peptide. This vaccine strategy may circumvent original antigenic sin.
Anderson
D E
DE
School of Medicine, University of California-Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
Carlos
M P
MP
Nguyen
L
L
Torres
J V
JV
D016915:AIDS Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D015699:HIV Envelope Protein gp120 / Q000276:immunology*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000276:immunology*; D007114:Immunization; D007156:Immunologic Memory; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D006377:T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer / Q000276:immunology
D016915:AIDS Vaccines; D015699:HIV Envelope Protein gp120