NMR study and comparison of the antigenic properties of a peptide recognized by two HIV-1 neutralizing antibodies.

Fab-peptide complexes formed between a 15 residue peptide derived from the HIV-1 gp120 V3 loop and two of its cognate monoclonal antibodies, 5023A and 5025A, were studied using isotope-edited solution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques. Since these antibodies neutralize HIV-1 virus with different strain specificities, this study was conducted to better understand the nature of these differences. The amide proton and nitrogen NMR resonances of specific residues were used to monitor the backbone of this peptide in these complexes. Three central residues of this peptide ('RAF') were found to be strongly affected by binding to both antibodies. Several other peptide residues were affected by binding to antibody 5023A but not 5025A. The antibody epitopes mapped by NMR are similar to those obtained previously via PEPSCAN at higher pH. One main difference between the PEPSCAN and NMR determined epitopes for 5023A involved two glycine residues of the peptide. By NMR, one of these glycines was more dramatically affected by antibody binding than predicted by PEPSCAN, while the other was much less so.