title: Factors limiting the immunogenicity of HIV-1 gp120 envelope glycoproteins.
abstract: Efficient immune responses to HIV-1 gene products are essential elements to the development and design of an effective vaccine. Ideally, both humoral and cellular responses will be optimally elicited. It is therefore important to elucidate any factors that might limit the immunogenicity of HIV-1 proteins that are likely to be included in an effective vaccine. Since the HIV-1 exterior envelope glycoprotein gp120 is a major target for neutralizing antibodies, it is a virtual certainty that this gene product will be a component of any vaccine that seeks to elicit neutralizing antibody responses from the host humoral immune system. We report here the testing of several HIV-1 gp120 variants derived from a primary isolate that appears deficient in eliciting immune responses at both the level of CD4+ help and consequently in the generation of high-affinity IgG antibody responses in small animals. Factors limiting an effective immune response include (a) envelope glycoprotein strain variation decreasing functional T-cell help, (b) alteration of the glycosylation patterns of gp120 by expression in different cell types, and (c) the native structure of gp120 itself, which may limit the elicitation of effective T-cell help during natural infection or during parenteral immunization in adjuvant. Such limiting factors and others should be considered in the design and testing of gp120-based immunogens in small animals and possibly in primates as well.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cancer Immunology and AIDS, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Grundner
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pancera
authors.forename: Joung-Mo
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Koch
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sodroski
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wyatt
mesh_terms: D016915:AIDS Vaccines; D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood; D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D005260:Female; D015699:HIV Envelope Protein gp120 / Q000276:immunology*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood; D015847:Interleukin-4 / Q000276:immunology; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D016915:AIDS Vaccines; D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D017931:DNA Primers; D015699:HIV Envelope Protein gp120; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D015847:Interleukin-4