Development of peptide vaccines inducing production of neutralizing antibodies against HIV-1 viruses in HLA-DQ6 mice.

Peptide vaccines against HIV-1 were prepared according to the cassette theory that we had proposed previously. An amino acid sequence of B subtype consensus of the HIV-1 V3 region was introduced into the MHC binding component with a supermotif for various MHC class II. The peptide vaccines induced T-cell responses in the DQ6 mice in which only DQ6 molecules were expressed as MHC class II. By contrast, an original V3 peptide including the consensus sequence was non-immunogenic in the DQ6 mice. Antibodies obtained from the DQ6 mice immunized with the peptide vaccines neutralized laboratory B subtype strains of HIV-1 in vitro. It may be anticipated that these peptide vaccines protect infection of HIV-1 in DQ6 positive individuals.