Repeated epitope in the recombinant epitope-peptide could enhance ELDKWA-epitope-specific antibody response
Based on the hypothesis suggested by us that epitope-vaccine may be a new strategy against HIV mutation, we have studied several neutralizing epitopes on HIV envelope proteins. However we do not know whether a repeated epitope in a recombinant epitope-peptide can enhance epitope-specific antibody response or not. ELDKWA-epitope (aa669-674) on the C-domain of HIV-1 gp41 is a neutralizing epitope defined by the monoclonal antibody (mAb) 2F5 with broad neutralizing activity. In this study, we designed and prepared a series of the recombinant epitope-peptides bearing 1, 4 and 8 copies of ELDKWA-epitope respectively. In the comparison of the antisera induced by the three recombinant antigens, an obviously increased titre of ELDKWA-epitope-specific antibody was observed in the case of four and eight repeated epitopes. In flow cytometry analysis, the epitope-specific antibodies in both antisera showed stronger activity to bind the transfected CHO-WT cells that stably express HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein on the cell surfaces. These experimental results indicated that repeated epitope in the recombinant epitope-peptide could enhance ELDKWA-epitope-specific antibody response, which could contribute to designing an effective recombinant epitope-vaccine.
作 者： LIU Zuqiang Wang Zuguang CHEN Yinghua 作者单位： Laboratory of Immunology of Biology,Tsinghua University;Protein Science Laboratory of MOE, Beijing 100084, China 刊 名： 自然科学进展（英文版） SCI 英文刊名： PROGRESS IN NATURAL SCIENCE 年，卷(期)： 2005 15(1) 分类号： Q5 关键词： neutralizing epitope epitope vaccine antibody response repeated epitope HIV-1