Surface Engineering of Recombinant RNA Coliphage Qβ to Display gp41 MembraneProximal External-Region Epitopes from HIV-1

Abstract

The membrane proximal external region (MPER) of HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein-41 (gp41) is targeted by several broadly neutralizing antibodies whose conserved linear epitopes are promising targets for vaccine design. However, a formidable challenge has remained the difficulty to design and deliver MPER based immunogens for the efficient induction of such broadly neutralizing HIV-1 specific antibodies (bnAb). This is mainly because the linear bnAb MPER epitopes are poorly accessible to the immune system. The overall objective of this study therefore was the development of a novel RNA Qβ phage display system not only for monitoring anti-MPER specific antibody responses but equally as potential immunogens in future HIV-1 vaccine designs.