title: Collection of phage-peptide probes for HIV-1 immunodominant loop-epitope.
abstract: Early diagnosis and prevention of human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) infection, which remains a serious public health threat, is inhibited by the lack of reagents that elicit antiviral responses in the immune system. To create mimotopes (peptide models of epitopes) of the most immunodominant epitope, CSGKLIC, that occurs as a loop on the envelope gp41 glycoprotein and is a key participant in infection, we used phage-display technology involving biopanning of large random libraries with IgG of HIV-1-infected patients. Under the conditions used, library screening with IgG from patient serum was directed to the CSGKLIC epitope. Three rounds of selection converted a 12 mer library of 10(9) sequences into a population in which up to 79% of phage bore a family of CxxKxxC sequences ("x" designates a non-epitope amino acid). Twenty-one phage clones displaying the most frequently selected peptides were obtained and were shown to display the principal structural (sequence and conformational), antigenic and immunogenic features of the HIV-1 immunodominant loop-epitope. Notably, when the mixture of the phage mimotopes was injected into mice, it induced 2- to 3-fold higher titers of antibody to the HIV-1 epitope than could be induced from individual mimotopes. The described approach could be applicable for accurately reproducing HIV-1 epitope structural and immunological patterns by generation of specialized viral epitope libraries for use in diagnosis and therapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology of Institute of Biomedical Research, Mexico City, Mexico.
authors.forename: Yadira
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Palacios-Rodríguez
authors.forename: Tatiana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gazarian
authors.forename: Merrill
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rowley
authors.forename: Abraham
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Majluf-Cruz
authors.forename: Karlen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gazarian
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D015700:HIV Envelope Protein gp41 / Q000276:immunology*; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology* / Q000821:virology; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007114:Immunization; D016056:Immunodominant Epitopes / Q000276:immunology*; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000276:immunology*; D019151:Peptide Library; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D015700:HIV Envelope Protein gp41; D016056:Immunodominant Epitopes; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D010446:Peptide Fragments; D019151:Peptide Library