CD4+ T-lymphocyte lines developed from HIV-1-seropositive patients recognize different epitopes within the V3 loop.

To define the epitopes present within the V3 loop sequence recognized by five HIV-1 envelope-specific T-cell lines, a panel of V3 LAI peptides bearing sequential truncations from both the N- and C-terminus was synthesized and tested for their ability to induce proliferation. Each individual T-cell line had a different pattern of response against the truncated V3 peptides, demonstrating the presence of a cluster of CD4+ T-cell epitopes within the V3 loop. To assess the ability of these envelope-specific T-cell lines to recognize and proliferate in response to V3 loops of different viral strains, they were tested against a panel of heterologous V3 loop peptides derived from different viral genotypes within and outside of HIV-1 clade B. There was no proliferative response against heterologous V3 loops by any of the lines, demonstrating that recognition of the V3 epitopes is highly strain specific. One of the defined epitopes was shown to elicit a cytotoxic response as well, suggesting the multifaceted role that the CD4+ T cell might play in HIV-1 disease.

Differential role of V3-specific antibodies in neutralization assays involving primary and laboratory-adapted isolates of HIV type 1.

To identify epitopes important in neutralizing primary HIV-1 isolates, we have selectively depleted HIV-1 sera of antibodies specific for the third hypervariable region (V3) of the HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein gp120, and then assessed the functional consequences of such depletion in neutralization assays. The nucleotide sequence of the V3 loop region from HIV-1 PBMC DNA was determined for three HIV-1-infected patients, corresponding peptides were synthesized, and then subsequently used for V3 depletion of the patient sera. Depletion using a single clade B V3 peptide was capable of depleting > 98% of binding antibodies to multiple clade B V3 peptides, including those with changes within the GPGX tip of the loop. Depleted and undepleted sera were studied for their ability to neutralize both laboratory-adapted HIV-1MN and two primary HIV-1 isolates with known V3 sequences, using a viral infectivity reduction assay. While the majority of HIV-1MN neutralization was lost on V3 depletion, the loss in neutralization capacity against primary isolates by these same V3-depleted sera was substantially less pronounced. This suggests that V3 peptide-specific antibodies within HIV-1 serum play a fundamentally different role in mediating neutralization in assays involving laboratory-adapted and primary isolates and implicates antibodies with epitope specificities outside of V3 as major determinants in neutralization assays involving primary isolates.

Humoral responses to linear epitopes on the HIV-1 envelope in seropositive volunteers after vaccine therapy with rgp160.

Humoral responses to the HIV-1 envelope were investigated in 30 human volunteers enrolled in a phase I vaccine therapy trial of rgp160 (LAI/LAV) using two techniques that emphasize detection of antibody response against linear (continuous) epitopes: immunoblotting and PEPSCAN. Seven fusion proteins containing large portions from constant regions 1, 2, 3, and 5, and variable region 3 of gp120 and two regions in the transmembrane protein, gp41, were employed in immunoblots to quantitatively measure immune response as a function of immunization. In addition, the entire gp160 (LAI/LAV) envelope protein was constructed in duplicate sets of 211 overlapping 12-mer peptides to fine-map the changes. Immunoblotting defined significant changes in reactivity to epitopes in constant regions; of 28 volunteers completing the trial, the percentage with reactivity against C1 changed from 62 to 100%; for C2, from 0 to 46%; for C3, from 0 to 82%; and for a constant region in gp41, from 25 to 68%. PEPSCAN on a subset (n = 8) of these volunteers identified new reactivity to epitopes throughout the envelope, concentrated in V1, C3, and C5 in gp120 and several peptides in gp41. Completely immunized patients responded to double the number of linear epitopes compared with two patients receiving alum alone. The results verify that the response to rgp160 is significantly broadened after immunization, providing additional evidence that HIV-1-infected volunteers can expand their antibody repertoire against a protein from a pathogen during chronic infection with that same pathogen. These results expand those previously obtained in this patient cohort, by defining explicitly the immunogenic regions recognized postvaccination and by providing methodology for quantitating those changes.

Establishment and characterization of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) envelope-specific CD4+ T lymphocyte lines from HIV-1-seropositive patients.

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) gp160-, gp120-, and tetanus toxoid-specific CD4+ T lymphocyte lines were developed from 11 HIV-1-seropositive volunteers enrolled in a vaccine therapy trial. Of the 20 HIV-1 envelope-specific T cell lines, 9 were challenged with a panel of overlapping peptides spanning the gp120LAI sequence. The most frequently recognized regions were amino acids 74-105 in the C1 region and 306-328 in the V3 region. When tested against a panel of divergent HIV-1 envelopes, 55% of the envelope-specific lines were able to recognize gp120MN, while only 22% recognized gp120SF2. Cytotoxicity testing with HIV-1 envelope antigen or peptides demonstrated killing by all 3 envelope-specific lines tested. Supernatants from 2 of 9 lines had high titers of p24 gag antigen, which did not seem to interfere with functional properties.

Immunization of HIV-infected patients with rgp160: modulation of anti-rgp120 antibody spectrotype.

HIV-1 infection results in progressive failure of the immune system with decline in the number and/or function of B-cell clones originally recruited in specific humoral responses. Spectrotypic analysis, done by isoelectric focusing and reverse blotting (IEF-RB), is one technique for evaluating the activity and the number of specific B-cell clones and is adaptable to the direct measurement of antibodies to conformationally intact epitopes. The anti-HIV-1 (IIIB) rgp120 spectrotype was measured in 30 early-stage HIV-infected volunteers undergoing vaccine therapy with recombinant gp160 (rgp160). Twenty-five of the patients displayed a clear oligoclonal banding pattern; seven (28%) showed the same pattern in all samples, while 18 (72%) showed changes. Ten of the latter had an increase in band intensity over the course of immunization, and eight had an increase in both band intensity and number of bands. In contrast, serum samples from eight patients receiving placebo (alum) showed no changes over a comparable period. These findings suggest that vaccine therapy with rgp160 may be able to expand the anti-HIV-1 (LAI) gp120 B-cell clone pool in some HIV-infected patients as well as increase antibody synthesis by established B-cell clones recruited during natural infection. These data provide further evidence that postinfection vaccination may provide an alternative strategy in the treatment of chronic viral diseases.

Measurement of cerebrospinal fluid antibody to the HIV-1 principal neutralizing determinant (V3 loop).

Antibody to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 principal neutralizing determinant (V3 loop) was measured by peptide enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and paired serum samples of 21 HIV-seropositive patients. These patients had normal neurologic examinations and were without neurologic symptoms. Peptide ELISA demonstrated intrathecal antibody synthesis against the V3 loop of HIVMN, the V3 loop of HIVNY5, the V3 loop of HIVLAI, and the entire recombinant HIV-1MN gp120 in 21 of 21, 10 of 21, one of 21, and 12 of 21 patients, respectively. Biospecific interaction analysis (BIAcore), which requires only small amounts of CSF, was also used to detect anti-V3 CSF antibody. Fine mapping of linear epitopes within the V3 region was successful in three of five patients by Geysen PIN (PEPSCAN) ELISA and discordance between epitope specificity of CSF and serum antibody was found. While detection of CSF antibody against the V3 loop of HIVMN by peptide ELISA has been recently reported, we add to this finding using the peptide ELISA, PEPSCAN and BIAcore methodologies as well as measuring intrathecal antibody synthesis against V3 loops from HIV strains. Application of these techniques to future studies of anti-V3 antibody in CSF from persons receiving anti-HIV-1 immunizations may provide insight into the immunoregulation of the virus in the nervous system.

A partial primary structure of squid hepatopancreas organophosphorus acid anhydrolase.

Earlier studies of OPA anhydrolase from the squid, Loligo pealei, report that the enzyme has a molecular weight near 26 kDa, despite the common observation that SDS-PAGE experiments do not support this conclusion. Recent results from protein sequencing and cloning experiments now suggest that the enzyme found in squid hepatopancreas has a molecular weight of about 42 kDa. The enzyme easily degrades into two fragments of 16 kDa and approximately 26 kDa. N-terminal sequence analyses of the intact enzyme and the 16 kDa fragment blotted from an SDS gel and sequenced from the blot have shown conclusively that the intact 42 kDa protein has a blocked N-terminus. Sequence data obtained previously are from the N-terminal portion of the 16 kDa fragment. Additional support for this interpretation has been obtained from PCR analysis of L. pealei mRNA and cDNA. The partial (30 residue) sequence presented here reveals no indication of similarity to any other OPA anhydrolase or aryldialkylphosphatase (EC 3.1.8.1.).

Distinct T cell specificities are induced with the authentic versus recombinant Plasmodium berghei circumsporozoite protein.

Plasmodium berghei sporozoite (SPZ)-immune lymph node (LN) cells obtained from mice of different H-2 haplotypes were analyzed for the presence of circumsporozoite (CS) protein-reactive T cells in proliferative assays. Although lymphocytes from each strain responded in vitro to the priming Ag and to the soluble rCS protein, they did not respond to CS protein synthetic peptides. Parallel analysis of rCS protein-primed LN cells revealed that the two Ag are unequal in generating T cell specificities: although SPZ priming did not induce CS protein peptide-reactive T cells, priming with rCS protein did. Not being privy to the processing and presentation of SPZ Ag, we postulated that a different order of processing of the authentic, i.e., SPZ-associated CS protein vs soluble rCS protein might be responsible for the generation of different T cell specificities. Accordingly, authentic CS protein might not be processed by APC, or the processed fragments might obscure the recognition of smaller peptide fragments. Therefore, we subjected the SPZ to three cycles of a freeze/thaw procedure and used the denatured SPZ preparation for priming. We observed that contrary to priming with the authentic SPZ, denatured SPZ generated T cells reactive to some of the CS protein synthetic peptides. The hypothesis that each form of the SPZ Ag is subject to a unique Ag processing was also confirmed in experiments demonstrating a lack of recognition of the authentic CS protein by rCS protein-primed LN cells. Hence, the evidence presented in this work that complex protozoan Ag, such as Plasmodia, might present different requirements for Ag-specific T cell induction/activation not only enhances the basic understanding of the immune system, but is essential for the development of antimalaria vaccine(s). In addition, these observations support the hypothesis that the molecular context of the priming Ag influences the outcome of T cell specificities, by providing evidence that the authentic CS protein induces a T cell repertoire that is distinct from that induced by the rCS protein.

Real-time biospecific interaction analysis of antibody reactivity to peptides from the envelope glycoprotein, gp160, of HIV-1.

A new assay designed to quantitate antibody reactivity to specific peptides using biospecific interaction analysis (BIAcore) has been developed. Peptides of various lengths (15-40 amino acids) and isoelectric points (pI = 4.5-13) were covalently linked (immobilized) to a biosensor and interacted with polyclonal human sera. The immobilization procedure was highly reproducible, with bound peptides retaining high antibody reactivity. The assay was rapid, requiring only 25-30 min to immobilize the peptide and 2-8 min for each subsequent peptide/serum binding interaction. The same peptide surface has been used for up to 90 cycles of serum binding and regeneration with only a 0.3% decay in reactivity over cycle number. The quantitative BIAcore signal, measuring peptide/antibody binding interactions, was directly related to the antigen/antibody concentrations within the biosensor. The assay allowed interactants to be studied in their native form and without the need of additional secondary detection antibodies. Correlation between conventional peptide ELISA and BIAcore was obtained. The BIAcore linear range persisted over a series of eight two-fold dilutions. This extended linear dynamic response range is an improvement over conventional ELISA measurements. The sensitivity for monoclonal antibody detection is similar to conventional ELISAs and 4.9 ng/ml was readily detected.

Phagocytosis of liposomes by macrophages: intracellular fate of liposomal malaria antigen.

Liposomes containing a synthetic recombinant protein were phagocytosed by macrophages, and the internalized protein was recycled to the cell surfaces where it was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The transit time of the liposome-encapsulated protein from initial phagocytosis of liposomes to appearance of protein on the surfaces of macrophages was determined by pulse-chase experiments. The macrophages were pulsed with liposomes containing protein and chased with empty liposomes, and vice versa. The amount and rate of protein antigen expression at the cell surfaces depended on the quantity of encapsulated protein ingested by the macrophages. Although liposomes were rapidly taken up by macrophages, the liposome-encapsulated protein was antigenically expressed for a prolonged period (at least 24 h) on the cell surface. Liposomes were visualized inside vacuoles in the macrophages by immunogold electron microscopy. The liposomes accumulated along the peripheries of the vacuoles and many of them apparently remained intact for a long time (greater than 6 h). However, nonliposomal free protein was also detected in the cytoplasm surrounding these vacuoles, and it was concluded that the free protein in the cytoplasm was probably en route to the macrophage surface. Exposure of the cells to ammonium chloride did not inhibit the appearance of liposomal antigenic epitopes on the cell surface, and this suggests that expression of the liposomal antigenic epitopes at the surface was not a pH-sensitive phenomenon. There was no significant effect of a liposomal adjuvant, lipid A, on the rate or extent of surface expression of the liposomal protein.