title: Design of peptide mimetics of HIV-1 gp120 for prevention and therapy of HIV disease.
abstract: It has been reported that the C-terminus of the second conserved region (C2) of the envelope glycoprotein gp120, encompassing peptide RSANFTDNAKTIIVQLNESVEIN (NTM), is important for infectivity and neutralization of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). It was also demonstrated that human natural anti-vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) antibodies reactive with this gp120 region play an important role in control of HIV disease progression. The bioinformatic analysis based on the time-frequency signal processing revealed non-obvious similarities between NTM and VIP. When tested against a battery of sera from 46 AIDS patients, these peptides, in spite of a significant difference in their primary structures, showed a similar reactivity profiles (r = 0.83). Presented results point out that similarity in the periodical pattern of some physicochemical properties in primary structures of peptides plays a significant role in determination of their immunological crossreactivity. Based on these findings, we propose this bioinformatic criterion be used for design of VIP/NTM peptide mimetics for prevention and treatment of HIV disease.
authors.affiliation: Center for Multidisciplinary Research, Institute of Nuclear Sciences VINCA, P.O. Box 522, 11001 Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Veljkovic
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Branch
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Metlas
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Prljic
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Vlahovicek
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pongor
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Veljkovic
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods; D015195:Drug Design; D015483:HIV Antibodies / Q000097:blood; D015699:HIV Envelope Protein gp120 / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D018716:Molecular Mimicry; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D014660:Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D015483:HIV Antibodies; D015699:HIV Envelope Protein gp120; D010455:Peptides; D014660:Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide