RESUMO
The aim of this study was to define pluriepitopic regions in Gag and Nef possibly relevant in the perspective of a vaccine design in a vietnamese population. The protein sequences derived from gag and nef genes and phenotyping of the class I human leukocyte antigens (HLA) A and B alleles were established for 28 human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-infected patients from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The protein sequences display polymorphism mutations as compared with a B reference strain (HXB2). The most frequently represented HLA-A and -B alleles were HLA-A11, A02, and A33 expressed by 35.7, 23.2, and 21.4% of the patients, respectively, and HLA-B75, B46, and B62 expressed by 35.7, 25, and 17.9% of the patients, respectively. This study allows us to determine four pluriepitopic regions in Gag and Nef that should be chosen for a vaccine design in a Vietnamese population.
