Subregions of a conserved part of the HIV gp41 transmembrane protein are differentially recognized by antibodies of infected individuals.

A 240-bp DNA fragment encoding a peptide, designated ENV(80), homologous to a conserved part of the gp41 transmembrane glycoprotein of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was chemically synthesized and inserted into different plasmid expression vectors. Escherichia coli transformants containing these plasmid constructs produced upon induction high amounts of either an ENV(80) peptide of relative molecular mass (Mr) of 10,000 or the same ENV(80) peptide N-terminally fused to E. coli chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) or to mouse dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) having Mr of 36,000 and 31,000 respectively. All polypeptides containing the ENV(80) sequences were strongly reactive with antibodies present in sera from AIDS virus-infected individuals, but not with control sera. The strategy of gene assembly allowed the expression of ENV(80) subfragments fused to DHFR. The serodiagnosis of 15 positive sera by Western blot analysis using these bacterially synthesized ENV(80) subfragments revealed the presence of several immunoreactive epitopes on the 80-amino acid polypeptide which were recognized differently by the various patients.