Prospect for prevention of human immunodeficiency virus infection: purified 120-kDa envelope glycoprotein induces neutralizing antibody.

This study initiates an effort to develop a safe vaccine against the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) that is caused by infection with a retrovirus designated human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) [formerly human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III (HTLV-III)]. Other retrovirus models have shown that purified external glycoprotein subunits are immunogenic. The external envelope glycoprotein of HIV (gp120) has a molecular size of 120 kDa, is responsible for virus infectivity, and induces strong antibody response in humans. Purified HIV virus preparations contain relatively little gp120 so HIV-infected cells were used as the antigen source. The gp120 was localized on cell membranes and was solubilized with low levels of nonionic detergent. The glycoprotein was further purified by immunoaffinity chromatography over a resin prepared from IgGs isolated from patients. Homogeneity was achieved following extensive dialysis and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The gp120 isolated from infected cells was shown to be structurally identical by peptide maps to virion gp120 and the amino-terminal amino acid sequence confirmed that the molecule was specified by the HIV genome. Goat, horse, and rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) immune sera to gp120 precipitated the homologous antigen and neutralized the in vitro infectivity of HIV. The induction of neutralizing antibody indicates that a gp120 subunit vaccine against HIV is theoretically possible.