Subregion of the retroviral ENV protein, DNA sequences encoding it and compositions for the diagnosis, prevention or therapy of retrovirus infections

摘要

In order to reduce the opportunities of HIV to evade vaccine induced immunity, the developement of subunit vaccines must concentrate on those epitopes which are major targets of the immune system. The most dominant neutralization site on the gp120 resides within the third variable domain V3 of the molecule. This epitope was first predicted from our group as the only hypervariable antigenic region without consensus sequence for N-glycosylation and discussed according to its immunological importance. To overcome highly typspecific V3 mediated neutralization described by other laboratories we designed, based on a comparison of V3 sequences derived from different independent virus isolates, a 36 amino acid gp120/V3 consensus peptide. This peptide was tested for its immunological reactivity using independent sera of HIV positive individuals and typespecific anti-V3-antisera. After conversion into DNA this sequence will be an important component of newly designed subunit vaccines.