Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1991. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
IMMUNOREACTIVITY OF AIDS/ARC PATIENT SERA WITH SYNTHETIC OLIGOPEPTIDES FROM HIV GP41
HIV Detection by Genetic Engineering Methods. Luciw PA and Steimer KS, eds. New York, Marcel Dekker, p. 143-60, 1989.. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE ICDB/90660259 Rosen JI; Hom YL; Whalley AS; Smith RS; Naso RB; Johnson and Johnson Biotechnology Center, La Jolla, CA
Abstract:
In an effort to define critical, immunologically active epitopes for the development of both diagnostic and therapeutic products, 20 oligopeptides (each 15-20 amino acids in length) were synthesized from the published sequences of gag and env-lor genes of human lymphotropic virus-III. When these peptides were tested as immobilized antigen in an immunoassay for detection of antibody to HIV proteins, a single oligopeptide from the gp41(env) gene reacted strongly with a panel of sera from patients (pts) with AIDS or AIDS-related complex. The development of a diagnostic assay for antibody to HIV in pt sera and results showing that the assay is more sensitive and specific than viral-lysate assays are described. Immunoreactivity of pt sera with peptides, defining immunoreactive epitopes, using peptides E32 and E34 as antigen, a competition assay to reduce false positives, and reactivity with problematic sera are discussed. The E32/E34 assay, which is specific for antibodies to gp41, is capable of measuring antibodies to gp41 in sera thought to contain only antibodies to HIV core proteins (based on Western-blot analysis). This indicates that the E32/E34 assay is more sensitive for detecting antibody to gp41 than the Western blot assay. Furthermore, these data suggest that the existence of HIV-related p24-only sera is questionable. Such sera are likely to contain small amounts of antibody capable of recognizing gp41 in the E32/E34 assay and in more than one of the commercially available assays employing viral lysates or, as the present results show, contain no detectable antibodies to HIV proteins by ELISA and must therefore be considered questionably HIV-related and probably false positive by Western blot assay. The results presented here indicate that a combination of two small synthetic oligopeptides, specific for the gp41 region of HIV, are useful as the basis for a safe, sensitive, and specific serologic detection system for HIV antibody. Occasional sera are not reactive with E34, but do react with E32, indicating that presence of all the epitopes of the peptides E34 and E32 is necessary for a sensitive antibody assay. (16 Refs)
Keywords: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/DIAGNOSIS/*IMMUNOLOGY Amino Acid Sequence AIDS Serodiagnosis/*METHODS AIDS-Related Complex/DIAGNOSIS/*IMMUNOLOGY Blotting, Western Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay Human HIV/GENETICS/*IMMUNOLOGY HIV Antibodies/*ANALYSIS HIV Envelope Protein gp41/GENETICS/*IMMUNOLOGY Molecular Sequence Data Oligopeptides/GENETICS/*IMMUNOLOGY MONOGRAPH 910228
M9120721
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Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1991. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
