title: Peptide therapy for anti-CD4 autoimmunity in HIV-1 infection: toward the development of an autoimmune animal model.
abstract: Aiming to develop an animal model for anti-CD4 autoimmunity reflective of that observed in HIV-1 patients, we injected the selected peptides p1, p28 and p29 as the major immunogenic epitopes into HLA-DR4 and human CD4 transgenic DBA/16J mice, as well as into C57BL/6 and DBA mice. We document a decrease of CD4+ cells in peripheral blood and spleen after immunization with the human CD4-p28 immunogenic peptide of transgenic mice expressing human CD4, human HLA class II and mouse class II I-A(q) (HLA-DR4-huCD4-I-A(q+)); however, no decrease of CD4 cells was found in transgenic HLA-DR4-huCD4-I-A(q-) mice or in control C57BL/6 and DBA immunized mice. Overall, the consistency of CD4 reduction and immunological recognition of p28 peptide favors the HLA-DR4-huCD4-I-A(q+) mouse as the most promising autoimmune mouse model.
authors.affiliation: The Human Biology Research Center (HBRC), Hadassah University Hospital, Ein-Kerem, Jerusalem 91120, Israel. rivka_abulafia@yahoo.com
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Abulafia-Lapid
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Afentoulis
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Vandenbark
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000276:immunology*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D015551:Autoimmunity; D015704:CD4 Antigens / Q000276:immunology*; D018791:CD4 Lymphocyte Count; D002460:Cell Line; D016207:Cytokines / Q000096:biosynthesis; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D015497:HIV-1; D015804:HLA-DR4 Antigen / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008811:Mice, Inbred DBA; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D015704:CD4 Antigens; D016207:Cytokines; D015804:HLA-DR4 Antigen; D010446:Peptide Fragments