IMMUNOLOGICAL HETEROGENEITY OF HIV-1 - II - INFLUENCE OF RESIDUES C-FLANKING THE CENTRAL TETRAPEPTIDE IN THE GP120 V3 LOOP

Ninety HIV-1-positive sera were screened in ELISA with 11 synthetic pe ptides mimicking the central V3 loop epitopes of the HIV-1 surface gly coprotein gp120. Factor loads were analyzed in the framework of the pr incipal components method, providing quantitative assessment of the in fluence of epitope sequence on the intensity and specificity of its in teraction with the peptide panel. Pairwise comparison of the peptide a ntigen properties allowed a conclusion that the specificity of interac tion depends on the hydrophobicity and polarity of the residues flanki ng the central tetrapeptide from the right.