HIV-1 Gag p24-Nef fusion peptide induces cellular and humoral immune response in a mouse model.

UNLABELLED: Many Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) candidate vaccines have been tested in clinical trials, but none was sufficiently effective in the prevention of HIV infection. A HIV vaccine should induce humoral as well as cell-mediated response, the latter including the cytotoxic CD8+ T lymphocyte (CTL) response. In this study, we immunized BALB/c mice with a purified fusion peptide Gag p24-Nef and evaluated immune responses. As for the cellular responses, the adjuvanted fusion peptide induced lymphocyte proliferation, CTL response, and cytokines IFN-gamma and IL-4 in the Th1 pattern. Humoral immune response to the adjuvanted fusion peptide included an increase in IgG antibodies of more IgG2a than IgG1 subtype. These results indicate that the employed HIV-1 peptide construct can elicit both cellular and humoral immune responses in mice. Further studies aimed at memory T cells and other aspects of immune responses are needed before a comprehensive assessment of this candidate vaccine could be provided. KEYWORDS: epitopes; fusion peptide; HIV-1 p24-Nef; immune response.