Induction of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) envelope specific cell-mediated immunity by a non-homologous synthetic peptide.
BACKGROUND
Cell mediated immunity, including efficient CTL response, is required to prevent HIV-1 from cell-to-cell transmission. In previous investigations, we have shown that B1 peptide derived by Fourier transformation of HIV-1 primary structures and sharing no sequence homology with the parent proteins was able to generate antiserum which recognizes envelope and Tat proteins. Here we have investigated cellular immune response towards a novel non-homologous peptide, referred to as cA1 peptide.


RESULTS
The 20 amino acid sequence of cA1 peptide was predicted using the notion of peptide hydropathic properties; the peptide is encoded by the complementary anti-sense DNA strand to the sense strand of previously described non-homologous A1 peptide. In this report we demonstrate that the cA1 peptide can be a target for major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocytes in HIV-1-infected or envelope-immunized individuals. The cA1 peptide is recognized in association with different MHC class I allotypes and could prime in vitro CTLs, derived from gp160-immunized individuals capable to recognize virus variants.


CONCLUSIONS
For the first time a theoretically designed immunogen involved in broad-based cell-immune memory activation is described. Our findings may thus contribute to the advance in vaccine research by describing a novel strategy to develop a synthetic AIDS vaccine.
Laboratoire des Interférons, Université Paris Descartes, Centre Universitaire des Saint Pères, Paris, France. ammar.achour@univparis5.fr
Ammar
A
Achour
Jean-Michel
JM
Biquard
Velibor
V
Krsmanovic
Jean-Pierre
JP
M'bika
Damien
D
Ficheux
Marianna
M
Sikorska
Alain J
AJ
Cozzone
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D015686:Gene Products, env / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000276:immunology; D018023:HIV Seronegativity / Q000276:immunology; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010641:Phenotype; D011817:Rabbits; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000276:immunology*
D015686:Gene Products, env