HYPERVARIABLE EPITOPE CONSTRUCTS AS A MEANS OF ACCOUNTING FOR EPITOPEVARIABILITY

Epitope variability is one of the greatest obstacles to development of synthetic peptide vaccines. Based on a recently described hypervariab le epitope (aa 414-434) on the envelope glycoprotein (gp130) to simian immunodeficiency virus (SIVmac142), we have developed a novel approac h to account for epitope variability. We have prepared, in a single sy nthesis, a cocktail of peptides, designated a hypervariable epitope co nstruct (HEC), which collectively represent all the in vivo variabilit y seen in an epitope. The HEC represents permutations of amino acid su bstitutions found in the epitope and has been able to induce antibodie s with enhanced binding to native SIV and broad immunoreactivity to re lated epitope analogues.