Conserved immunogenic region of a major core protein (p24) of human and simian immunodeficiency viruses

A murine monoclonal antibody (MoAb), VAK 4, has been known to specifically react with a major core protein (p24) as well as with its precursor (p55-57) and intermediate precursor (p40) of human immunodeficiency virus strain IIIB (HTLV-IIIB). Radioimmunoprecipitation assays revealed that VAK 4 MoAb precipitated a major core protein and its precursors from a variety of strains of HIV and also from simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), although the molecular weights of the precursor proteins in each viral strain were slightly different. A protein synthesized by transfected Escherichia coli containing amino acid sequences corresponding to residues 121-436 of the HTLV-IIIB gag gene was reactive with VAK 4 MoAb, but the protein carrying only residues 121-309 was not reactive, suggesting that the epitope recognized by VAK 4 MoAb resides at the carboxyl terminus of p24 protein. A competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay showed that patient sera containing anticore protein antibody inhibited the binding of VAK 4 to HTLV-IIIB. These findings suggested that VAK 4 MoAb recognized an immunogenic and conserved epitope belonging to a major core protein of HIV-related viruses.