title: A designed Tat immunogen generates enhanced anti-Tat C-terminal antibodies.
abstract: HIV-1 Tat has been identified as an attractive target for vaccine development and is currently under investigation in clinical trials as both a therapeutic and preventative vaccine for HIV-1. The Tat C-terminal region is of significant importance for its extracellular activity. In this study, we designed two recombinant Tat immunogens, Tat(B41-100N) and Tat(B41-100C), with two extended Tat C-terminal regions (41-100 aa) and compared their humoral immune response with native Tat. Interestingly, our results showed that Tat(B41-100C) elicited a higher antibody titer than Tat and Tat(B41-100N) in both mice and rabbits. The recombinant fusion protein-based epitope analysis showed that Tat(B41-100C) induced a remarkably enhanced humoral immune response against extended Tat C-terminal regions containing residues 38-100, 49-100 and 60-100. Our study demonstrates that the designed Tat(B41-100C) presents a designed immunogenicity that elicits enhanced Tat-specific antibodies especially against extended Tat C-terminal regions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China.
authors.forename: Wenting
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.forename: Qiuli
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Guangguo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Zhenyu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Huaqun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yifeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chai
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Pan
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D015483:HIV Antibodies / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009500:Neutralization Tests; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology; D011817:Rabbits; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification; D054322:tat Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D015483:HIV Antibodies; D010455:Peptides; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D054322:tat Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus