Diagnosis of AIDS Using Designed Amino Acid Peptides Representing Immunodominant Epitopes of HIV.

摘要

HIV causes a persistent infection that results in AIDS, a major health hazard to military and civilian populations. We have designed and continue to design and synthesize a variety of amino acid peptides from proteins of HIV-1 and HIV-2 viruses. Our purpose is to map the immunodominant domains of HIV-1 and HIV-2. This information and use of such reagents would accomplish three purposes. First, and under current evaluation, sensitive and specific reagents to diagnose HIV-1 and HIV-2 infected individuals, defining both viruses and marking emerging families of variants would be obtained. Second, the pathogenesis as regards the loss of, or conversely, the evolution of new immune (potentially immunopathologic) responses could be charted. Third, the data collected would be important for the design of subunit vaccines.