SUBTYPE C HIV ANTIGEN: MULTIVALENT & PRIME-BOOST REGIMEN

鉴于全世界感染艾滋病毒的人数众多，大多数流行病学家都认为，疫苗是遏制艾滋病流行的唯一实际解决方案。虽然可以使用许多不同的策略，但尚未证明任何策略比基于包膜糖蛋白gp120的策略引发更好的免疫反应。这些疫苗几乎具有理想疫苗的所有技术特征。它们诱导对嗜巨噬细胞和嗜T细胞的HIV-1株有效的中和抗体。它们能够刺激与常见多态性反应的抗体，看起来安全，并且在全球范围内可负担得起。我们的目标是产生H1V亚型C gp120蛋白抗原，用于多价疫苗或作为初始增强方案的组成部分。收集并克隆病毒，对其gp120基因进行测序。序列分析将用于鉴定中和表位内的多态性。生物信息学结果将指导gp120分子的选择，这些分子将被瞬时表达和纯化。为了及时检测大量抗原组合，将开发高通量中和试验。拟议的商业应用：本研究的潜在商业应用是一种C亚型HIV疫苗。

Given the enormous number of HIV-infected people worldwide, most epidemiologists agree that a vaccine is the only practical solution to stemming the AIDS epidemic. Although a number of different strategies could be utilized, no strategy has yet been proven to elicit a better immune response than one based on the envelope glycoprotein, gp120. These vaccines exhibit almost all the technical characteristics of an ideal vaccine. They elicit neutralizing antibodies effective against both macrophage tropic and T cell tropic strains of HIV-1. They are capable of stimulating antibodies reactive with the common polymorphisms, appear safe, and are affordable for worldwide distribution. Our goal is to generate H1V subtype C gp120 protein antigens to use in either a multivalent vaccine or as a component of a prime-boost regimen. Virus will be collected and cloned and their respective gp120 genes will be sequenced. The sequence analysis will be used to identify the polymorphisms within the neutralizing epitopes. The bioinformatic results will guide the selection of gp120 molecules that will be transiently expressed and purified. A high throughput neutralization assay will be developed in order to examine a large number of antigen combinations in a timely manner. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: The potential commercial application of this research is a subtype C HIV vaccine.