Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 subtype E envelope recombinant peptides containing naturally immunogenic epitopes

A series of recombinant peptides of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) subtype E envelope were used to address the question of whether immunogenic epitopes similar to those described for the subtype B envelope are also present in structurally analogous regions of another HIV-1 subtype with divergent sequences. Five recombinant peptides, covering the V2 and V3 domains of gp120, the cysteine-loop region of gp41, a gp41 region involved in oligomerization, and the cytoplasmic tail of gp41, were found to react with >50% of the serum samples analyzed. All but the V2 region in the HIV-1 subtype B envelope have been reported to contain continuous epitopes that are highly immunogenic during natural infection. This finding suggests that, despite the sequence divergence between subtype E and B envelopes, most of the continuous epitopes that are highly immunogenic during natural infection are located at structurally analogous regions of the envelope.