Antibody responses of chimpanzees immunized with synthetic peptides corresponding to full-length V3 hypervariable loops of HIV-1 envelope glycoproteins.

Immunization of primates or humans with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) glycoproteins usually elicited moderate immune responses to the principal neutralizing determinant (PND) located within the V3 hypervariable loop of gp120. Since an antibody response to the PND appears to be protective, experiments were carried out to determine the responsiveness of chimpanzees to immunization with synthetic peptides corresponding to the full-length V3 loop. Seven chimpanzees (4 preimmunized with gp160, 2 preimmunized with HIV-1 antigens unrelated to gp160, and 1 unimmunized) were vaccinated with a mixture of full-length V3 loop peptides from 21 distinct HIV-1 isolates (clones) either in unconjugated form or linked to carrier proteins from HIV-1 nef and gag P18, respectively. Six chimpanzees developed high levels of antibodies to the peptides (dilution endpoints 1:> 25,000), and 5 had high levels of antibodies to gp120 from HIV-1IIIB (endpoint titers 1: > 500,000). Chimpanzees immunized with peptide-carrier conjugates (4) had antibodies to the carrier proteins nef and gag P18, respectively (endpoint titers 1: greater-than-or-equal-to 35,000). Virus-neutralizing (VN) antibodies were detected in sera of 5 of 7 chimpanzees, but were present at titers of 1: greater-than-or-equal-to 400 only in sera of 2 chimpanzees. One of these was challenged with HIV-1 and was protected against infection, as reported elsewhere. The antibodies were primarily specific for the HIV-1 isolate used for primary immunization before boosting with peptides. The relatively low dilution endpoints of VN antibodies as compared with endpoints determined by site-specific immunoassays probably can be ascribed to imperfect mimicry of conformational epitopes by synthetic peptides. Nevertheless, sequential or simultaneous immunization with recombinant envelope glycoproteins of HIV-1 and selected synthetic peptides offers an approach for eliciting protective immunity against HIV-1.