Collection of phage–peptide probes for HIV-1 immunodominant loop-epitope

Phages and HIV-1: From Display to Interplay

“…Each panning round consisted of a positive selection performed on LTNP IgGs followed by a negative selection on the IgGs of healthy donors. Homologies of some selected sequences to immunodominant regions such as the gp120 V3 loop or the gp41 GKLIC region were observed, as reported in previous studies [50,52,53]. Further homologies to linear motifs located near the V3 loop (NNNT), downstream of the ID GKLIC region (AVPW motif) and overlapping with the 2F5 BNtAb epitope (PPWx 3 W motif) were also identified.…”

“…Later, Palacios-Rodriguez et al evaluated the impact of factors such as Highly Active AntiRetroviral Treatment (HAART) or Ab titers on a selection of peptides mimicking the ID epitope CSGKLIC [53]. In their study, a mix of linear 12-mer as well as linear and constrained 7-mer RPL was screened against the individual plasma samples of four HIV-1 infected patients initiating HAART and presenting different titers of anti-GKLIC antibodies.…”

Sensing the Whole Body and Clinical Diagnostics

“…Currently, the standard diagnostic tests for HIV infection are based on the ELISA technique for the detection of anti-viral antibodies. A great variety of synthetic and phage-displayed peptides have been presently collected as test antigens (Palacios-Rodriguez et al 2007 ), so what remains is to develop simpler methods that could be equal or superior in precision.…”

Constrained peptide models from phage display libraries highlighting the cognate epitope-specific potential of the anti-HIV-1 mAb 2F5

“…Constrained libraries expressing shorter (4-mer, 6-mer) and longer (8-mer, 10-mer, 12-mer) peptides were screened with mAb 2F5 by Menendez et al [22], but this did not result in such a uniform selection of epitope structural mimics. The antibody elicited by the gp41 immunodominant fiveresidue CSGKLIC loop-epitope selected 21 different five-residue cyclic CxxKxxC epitope mimics in the linear 12-mer library [41,42] as another example of strong antibody requirement for loop size. Unlike the CSGKLIC loop-epitope, the cognate 2F5 epitope in the gp41 is not cyclic but may be in a helical conformation [20].…”