Three Candidate Peptide-Vaccines in Combination To Induce High Levels of Multiantibodies Against HIV-1

N-and C-domains of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) gp41 are demonstrated to play an important role in HIV-entry and prevention. In addition, the V3 loop on gp120 was identified as the principal neutralizing determinant (PND). Based on the fact that a combination of several monoclonal antibodies to different neutralizing epitopes showed great protection against intravenous challenge and vaginal transmission of pathogenic HIV-1/Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) chimeric virus on macaques, three candidate peptide-vaccines were prepared and used in combination to induce high levels of multiantibodies against HIV-1. The three peptides contained important functional regions on HIV-1 gp160. The N-domain peptide (P1: aa550-579) and C-domain peptide (P2: aa633-662) of gp41 and V3 peptide (P3: aa301-328) of gp120 were conjugated with bovine serum albumin (BSA) using the glutaraldehyde method. After the vaccination course, each of the three candidate peptide-vaccines induced strong antibody response in rabbits. The three vaccines used in combination induced high levels of multiantibodies against the peptides of the N-and C-domains and the V3 loop, with the titer of antibodies up to 1 : 6400-1 : 25 600 in rabbit sera in comparison with the titer of 1 : 800-1 : 3200 induced by rgp41 or rgp160. Our results indicate that immunogenicities of the N-and C-domains and the V3 loop in these three candidate peptide-vaccines were clearly stronger than those induced by rgp41 or rgp160, and these peptide-vaccines used in combination synchronously induced high levels of multiantibodies against HIV-1, suggesting that used in combination they may provide a new vaccine-strategy to induce strong multi-antiviral activity.

Keywords
human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1); peptide-vaccine; combination; immunogenicity