PEPTIDES INDUCING NEUTRALIZING ANTIBODIES AGAINST GENETICALLY DIVERGING HIV-1 STRAINS

摘要

Peptides are described which elicit antibodies, preferably including secretory antibodies secreted by mucosal surfaces, that show neutralizing activity against different strains and clinical isolates of HIV-1 and that inhibit the fusion of cells caused by HIV-1, which peptides are composed of a sequence of seven or eight amino acids corresponding to the ones on gp41 of gp160 of the HIV isolate BH10 at the position 662 to 668 (ELDKWAS) or at the position 661 to 668 (LELDKWAS) respectively, preferably including peptides being composed of the sequence ELDNWAS, ELNKWAS, LELDNWAS or LELNKWAS, or that are genetically encoded by nucleotide sequences corresponding to said amino acid sequences, or by sequences hybridizing to said nucleotide sequences, or by sequences deduced from said nucleotide sequences by degeneration. Preferably, the peptides substitute one or more parts of the amino acid sequence of a viral protein or are inserted into antigenic sites of a viral protein, e.g. by fusion of the respective nucleotide sequences, and subsequent expression of the fusion genes is carried out in a biological expression system.