摘要
The epitope ELDKWA, which is located in the membrane-proximal external region （MPER） of HIV-1 gp41, is an important neutralizing epitope. The human monoclonal antibody （mAb） 2F5 against this epitope shows broad neutralizing activity toward many HIV strains. However, several reports have shown that the epitope-specific mAbs induced by peptides containing MPER did not exhibit the same neutralizing activities as human mAb 2F5. In this study, four ELDKWA epitope specific mAbs （9E7, 7E10, 6B5, and 2B4） induced by immunization with the ELDKWA epitope in varied molecular contexts, all showed inhibitory activi- ties with different potencies in HIV-1 Env-mediated membrane fusion assays and pseudovirus neutralization assays. This result indicates that though these antibodies recognize the epitope ELDKWA, their characteri- zations differ from that of neutralizing antibodies, implying that the neutralizing mAbs can be induced but also need to be screened, and the protective ability of a related vaccine antigen depends on the concentra- tion of the neutralizing mAbs in the induced polyclonal antibodies.
The epitope ELDKWA, which is located in the membrane-proximal external region （MPER） of HIV-1 gp41, is an important neutralizing epitope. The human monoclonal antibody （mAb） 2F5 against this epitope shows broad neutralizing activity toward many HIV strains. However, several reports have shown that the epitope-specific mAbs induced by peptides containing MPER did not exhibit the same neutralizing activities as human mAb 2F5. In this study, four ELDKWA epitope specific mAbs （9E7, 7E10, 6B5, and 2B4） induced by immunization with the ELDKWA epitope in varied molecular contexts, all showed inhibitory activi- ties with different potencies in HIV-1 Env-mediated membrane fusion assays and pseudovirus neutralization assays. This result indicates that though these antibodies recognize the epitope ELDKWA, their characteri- zations differ from that of neutralizing antibodies, implying that the neutralizing mAbs can be induced but also need to be screened, and the protective ability of a related vaccine antigen depends on the concentra- tion of the neutralizing mAbs in the induced polyclonal antibodies.
基金
Supported by the National High-Tech Research and Development (973) Program of China (No. 2006CB504203)
