AN ANTI-HIV-1 GAG PROTEIN RAT MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODY LIBRARY

A set of 18 rat monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) directed against human im munodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) gag proteins was derived from 4 in dependent fusion protocols. The epitopes recognized were delineated us ing a random fragment expression library representing the whole HIV-1( IIIB) genome. This panel of rat MAbs was used to analyze the antigenic ities of the HIV-1 CAp24 major core protein and the HIV-1 NCp7 nucleoc apsid protein. As a result, a limited set of antigenic domains was def ined, 3 on CAp24 between amino acids (aa) 195 and 268, 323 and 329, 32 9 and 352, and one on NCp7 (aa 382-392). Only 4 mouse anti-CAp24 MAbs appeared to recognize the COOH-terminal domain (aa 329-352) defined by the majority of our MAbs. The rat anti-CAp24 (Q1B10) and the rat anti -NCp7 (I5B11) MAbs described here, defined two newly described epitope s, aa 323-329 and aa 382-392.