       Document 0510
 DOCN  M9630510
 TI    Antibody responses raised against a conformational V3 loop peptide of
       HIV-1.
 DT    9603
 AU    Bukawa H; Fukushima J; Hamajima K; Kimura M; Tsuji T; Xin KQ; Okuda K;
       Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Yokohama City; University
       School of Medicine, Kanagawa, Japan.
 SO    Microbiol Immunol. 1995;39(8):607-14. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE
       MED/96064270
 AB    The amino acid sequence of the principal neutralizing determinant (PND)
       of 224 cases of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) was
       determined and the most frequently occurring sequence was used as a
       peptide antigen for studying virus-specific antibody responses. In our
       present study, a linear peptide of the most frequent PND was first
       synthesized and then oxidized to create a disulfide-bridged loop
       conformation. Then, in order to construct a macromolecular structure for
       the purpose of increasing antigenicity, the synthetic peptide was
       conjugated to a core peptide. We compared the immunogenicity of the
       disulfide-bridged loop PND peptide antigen (AG4) and the linear PND
       peptide antigen (AG5). After immunizing rabbits 5 and 6 times with both
       peptides, the results obtained using ELISA revealed that AG4
       (conformational-loop type) was more capable of inducing a high titer of
       antigen-specific antibodies than was AG5 (linear type). Despite an amino
       acid sequence homology of 72%, a 1:8 dilution of serum raised against
       AG4 inhibited 81.9% of HIV-1IIIB-mediated cell fusion, suggesting that
       conformational V3 loop peptide is able to elicit an antibody response
       which is strongly HIV-1-specific.
 DE    Amino Acid Sequence  Animal  Human  HIV Antibodies/*BIOSYNTHESIS  HIV
       Envelope Protein gp120/CHEMISTRY/*IMMUNOLOGY  HIV-1/*IMMUNOLOGY
       Molecular Sequence Data  Peptide Fragments/CHEMISTRY/*IMMUNOLOGY
       Protein Conformation  Rabbits  Support, Non-U.S. Gov't  JOURNAL ARTICLE

       SOURCE: National Library of Medicine.  NOTICE: This material may be
       protected by Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.Code).

