Proliferative Responses to Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 (HIV‐1) gp120 Peptides in HIV‐1–Infected Individuals Immunized with HIV‐1 rgp120 or rgp160 Compared with Nonimmunized and Uninfected Controls

Abstract

The proliferative responses to a series of peptides constituting the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) gp120 sequence were evaluated in 19 HIV-1-infected rgp160 vaccine recipients, 17 HIV-1-infected rgp120 vaccine recipients, 15 HIV-1-infected placebo recipients, and 18 HIV-1-uninfected controls. Many regions of the gp120 molecule were found to contribute proliferative epitopes, although there were clearly regions of relative dominance and silence. Vaccine recipients tended to have broader, more robust, and more frequent peptide recognition than the placebo recipients. Despite the considerable variability in the pattern of peptide recognition among individuals, there was a striking similarity between the rgp160 and rgp120 vaccinee groups as a whole. Low-risk HIV-1-uninfected individuals may react to a few peptides within the gp120 sequence as well, despite a lack of significant response to the whole gp120 protein.

Confirmation of Immunogenic Consensus Sequence HIV-1 T-cell Epitopes in Bamako, Mali and Providence, Rhode Island

“…26 Consistent with these findings, we also found that "core peptides" were also less likely to bind than the extended ICS peptides, which invariably contained the flanking regions.…”

Parasitic Infection and the Polarized Th2 Immune Response Can Alter a Vaccine-Induced Immune Response

“…Several groups have reported on the use of recombinant gp120 and gp160, the envelope protein of HIV. All studies have shown that the protein is well tolerated and safe, but the immune responses generated by these vaccines are generally not thought to be of a protective level (Sitz et al, 1999;McCormack et al, 2000;Cunningham et al, 2001). Protein vaccines drive the immune response towards the Th2 cellular response and generation of antibodies.…”

Design of peptide mimetics of HIV‐1 gp120 for prevention and therapy of HIV disease

“…Despite the presence of the strongest T‐cell epitope of gp120, which is active in vitro (3–7) and an exposed B‐cell epitope (8,9), the C‐terminus of the C2 region encompassing amino acids 280–306 is not immunogenic in humans (3,10–12). Absence of the active B‐cell epitope within this peptide indicates that antibodies in sera of HIV patients recognizing this region of HIV‐1 gp120 represent autoreactive antibodies elicited by some human antigen.…”