Nucleic acids and peptides of human immunodeficiency virus...

Details Nucleic acids and peptides of human immunodeficiency virus... Nucleic acids and peptides of human immunodeficiency virus...

2000-01-06

2002-08-27

Scheiner, Laurie (Department: 1648)

Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology

Measuring or testing process involving enzymes or...

Involving virus or bacteriophage

C435S007100, C424S188100, C424S208100

Reexamination Certificate

active

06440657

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to antigens, particularly in a purified form, of the virus of lymphadenopathies (denoted below by the abbreviation LAS) and of the acquired immuno-depressive syndrome (denoted below by the abbreviation AIDS), to a process for producing these antigens, particularly antigens of the envelopes of these viruses. The invention also relates to polypeptides, whether glycosylated or not, encoded by said DNA sequences.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The causative agent of LAS or AIDS, a retrovirus, has been identified by F. BARRE-SINOUSSI et al., Science, 220, 868 (1983). It has the following characteristics. It is T-lymphotropic; its preferred target is constituted by Leu 3 cells (or T4 lymphocytes); it has reverse transcriptase activity necessitating the presence of Mg+ and exhibits strong affinity for poly(adenylate-oligodeoxy-thymidylate) (poly(A)-oligo(dT)12-18). It has a density of 1.16-1.17 in a sucrose gradient, an average diameter of 139 nanometers; and a nucleus having an average diameter of 41 nanometers. Antigens of said virus, particularly a protein p25 are recognized immunologically by antibodies contained in serums taken up from patients afflicted with LAS or AIDS. The p25 protein, which is a core protein, is not recognized immunologically by the p24 protein of the HTLVI and II viruses. The virus is also free of a p19 protein which is immunologically cross-reactive with the p19 proteins of HTLVI and HTLVII.
Retroviruses of this type (sometimes denoted by the generic abbreviation LAV) have been filed in the National Collection of Micro-organism Cultures of the INSTITUT PASTEUR of Paris, under numbers I-232, I-240 and I-241. Virus strains similar to LAV in all respects from the morphological and immunological point of view have been isolated in other laboratories. Reference is made by way of examples to the retrovirus strains named HTLV-III isolated by R. C. GALLO et al., Science, 224, 500 (1984) and by M. G. SARNGADHARAN et al., Science 224, 506 (1984) respectively and to the retrovirus isolated by M. JAY LEVY et al., Science, 225, 840-842 (1984), which virus was designated ARV. For the ease of language the last mentioned viruses, as well as others which have equivalent morphological and immunological properties, will be designated hereafter under the generic designation “LAV”. Reference is also made to European patent application filed Sep. 14, 1984, with the priority of British patent application No. 83 24800 filed Sep. 15, 1983 as regards a more detailed description of the LAV retroviruses or the like and of the uses to which extracts of these viruses give rise.
Initially the core antigens were the main antigens of the virus lysates or extracts which were recognized by serums of patients infected with AIDS or LAS, in the test systems which had then been used. A p42 protein, presented as consisting of an envelope protein, had been detected too. In the same manner GALLO et al disclosed a p41 protein which was also deemed to be a possible component of the virus envelope.
Processes for obtaining a LAV virus have also been described. Reference may be made particularly to the article already mentioned of F. BARRE-SINOUSSI et al., as regards the preparation of the virus in T lymphocyte cultures derived either from blood, or from the umbilical cord, or also from bone marrow cells of adult donors in good health. This process comprises particularly the following essential steps:
producing a viral infection of these T lymphocytes, after activation by a lectin mitogen, with a viral suspension derived from a crude supernatant liquor of lymphocytes producing the virus (initially obtained from a patient infected with AIDS or LAS),
culturing cells infected with TCGF, in the presence of anti-&agr;-interferon sheep serum,
effecting purification of the virus produced (production starts generally between the 9th and the 15th day following infection and lasts from 10 to 15 days), which purification comprises precipitating the virus in polyethylenglycol in order to produce a first concentration of the virus, then centrifugating the preparation obtained in a 20-60% sucrose gradient or in an isotonic gradient of metrizanide (sold under the trade mark NYCODENZ by NYEGAARD, Oslo) and recovering the virus with the band having a density of 1.16-1.17 in the sucrose gradient or of 1.10-1.11 in the NYCODENZ gradient.
The LAV virus may also be produced from permanent cell lines of type T, such as the CEM line, or from B lymphoblastoid cell lines, such as obtained by the transformation of the lymphocytes derived from a healthy donor with the Epstein-Barr virus, for instance as disclosed in French patent application Nr. 84 07151 filed May 9, 1984. The permanent cell lines obtained produce continuously a virus (designated as LAV-B in the case of the B lymphoblastoid cell lines) which possesses the essential antigenic and morphological features of the LAV viruses (except that it is collected in a density band sometimes slightly higher than in the preceding case (particularly 1.18) in sucrose. The final purification of the virus can also be carried out in a NYCODENZ gradient.
A method for cloning DNA sequences hybridizable with the genomic RNA of LAS has already been disclosed in British Patent Application Nr. 84 23659 filed on Sep. 19, 1984. Reference is hereafter made to that application as concerns subject matter in common with the further improvements to the invention disclosed herein.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention aims at providing purified unaltered virus forms (or viruses less altered by the purification procedures resorted to) and processes for obtaining said unaltered purified viruses.
The present invention further aims at providing additional new means which should not only be useful for the detection of LAV or related viruses (hereafter more generally referred to as “LAV viruses”), but also have more versatility, particularly in detecting specific parts of the genomic DNA of said viruses whose expression products are not always directly detectable by immunological methods. The present invention further aims at providing polypeptides containing sequences in common with polypeptides comprising antigenic determinants included in the proteins encoded and expressed by the LAV genome occurring in nature. An additional object of the invention is to further provide means for the detection of proteins related to LAV virus, particularly for the diagnosis of AIDS or pre-AIDS or, to the contrary, for the detection of antibodies against the LAV virus or proteins related therewith, particularly in patients afflicted with AIDS or pre-AIDS or more generally in asymptomatic carriers and in blood-related products. Finally the invention also aims at providing immunogenic polypeptides, and more particularly protective polypeptides for use in the preparation of vaccine compositions against AIDS or related syndromes.
The present invention relates to additional DNA fragments, hybridizable with the genomic RNA of LAV as they will be disclosed hereafter, as well as with additional cDNA variants corresponding to the whole genomes of LAV viruses. It further relates to DNA recombinants containing said DNAs or cDNA fragments.
An unaltered purified LAV retrovirus distinguishes from those which have been defined above in that it includes an amount of one or several envelope antigens, sufficient to be visualized when the virus is labeled with
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S-cysteine, free of unlabeled cysteine in a proportion of 200 microcuries per ml of medium. These antigens, among which particularly glycoproteins, are recognized selectively in vitro by serums of patients affected with SIDA or SLAs or by the serums of asymptomatic carriers of the virus.
A preferred antigen according to the preceding definition obtainable from a lysate of this virus (or by gentle scouring of the envelopes of the virus) is a glycoprotein having a molecular weight of the order of 110,000 daltons, as determined by its migration distance in_comparison with the distances of migrations, in a same migration sys

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