COMPARATIVE EFFICIENCY OF SIMPLE LIPOPEPTIDE CONSTRUCTS FOR IN-VIVO INDUCTION OF VIRUS-SPECIFIC CTL

We have previously shown that virus-specific CTL responses can be elic ited in vivo by injecting, without adjuvant, 12-40 amino acid-long pep tides, modified in C-terminal position by a simple lipidic amino acid In this paper, we have studied the chemical accessibility, and the abi lity to induce in mice a CTL response, of a series of lipopeptides der ived from the HIV-1 env (312-327) or (302-335) sequences. We showed th at a single modification of these peptides by a lipidic amino acid pre ferably in C-terminal position, results in the ability to reproducibly induce, without adjuvant, a relevant CTL response. No clear discrimin ation appeared concerning the nature of the lipidic modification. Our findings indicate that modification of a relatively long peptide by a N-epsilon-palmitoyl-L-Lysylamide can be achieved by conventional metho ds of synthesis and characterization, offering the possibility to deve lop low-cost synthetic vaccines in models in which the CTL component i s of importance. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.