Expression of HIV regulatory DNA vaccine constructs

Viral regulatory sequences may be exploited as immunogens for prophylactic and therapeutic vaccination. They are subjected to less interstrain variati on than the envelope proteins, and are thus of interest for immunization ap proaches. Deleted forms of regulatory nef, tat and rev genes have been asso ciated with less virulent human infections. The construction of primary HIV DNA plasmids and their capacity to produce functional and immunogenic prot eins are demonstrated. HIV regulatory proteins carry several amino acid str etches with good binding capacity to HLA class I molecules, and are therefo re potential CTL epitopes. Also antibody responses are induced, which may s erve to inhibit regulatory molecules that have intercellular trafficking.