Induction of multi-epitopespecific antibodies against HIV-1 by multi-epitopevaccines

Some neutralizing antibodies against HIV-1 envelope proteins were highly effective to inhibit the infection of different strainsin vitro, and existed in the infected individuals with very low levels. We suggested multi-epitope-vaccine as a new strategy to increase levels of neutralizing antibodies and the abilities against HIV mutationin vivo. Two candidate multi-epitope-vaccines induced antibodies with predefined multi-epitope-specificity in rhesus macaque. These antibodies recognized corresponding neutralizing epitopes on epitope-peptides, gp41 peptides, V3 loop peptide, rsgp41 and rgp120. Besides, three candidate epitope-vaccines in combination (another kind of multi-epitopevaccines) showed similar potency to induce predefined multiple immune responses in rabbits. These results suggest that multi-epitope-vaccines may be a new strategy to induce multi-antiviral activities against HIV-1 infection and mutations.