| 摘要 |
Synthetic peptides and methods for configuring the amino acid sequences thereof are disclosed which are especially useful in the preparation of vaccines intended for the prophylaxis and treatment of viral pathogens exhibiting high mutation rates such as HIV-1. The high mutation rates of such viral pathogens result in extreme variance in the linear sequence of viral protein residues, such as the variable linear sequences of gp 120 of HIV-1. To be effective and provide broad-spectrum and/or cross-clad coverage against hypervariable viruses such as HIV-1, vaccines must target common denominators of all infective strains of such a virus. These functional common denominators lie in the 3-dimensional configuration of proteins essential for host cell binding and infectivity. The disclosed peptides and methods for configuring same are derived from the 3 dimensional relationships of conserved residues of viral proteins defining conformational epitopes necessary and required for viral pathogenicity. |
