Figure 1

Identification of two linear epitopes on HERV-K (HML-2) Env. (A) 4 sera from chronically HIV-1 infected patients (HIV^pos; black) and 2 sera from seronegative low risk healthy donors (HIV^neg; grey) were used for antibody epitope identification by ELISA. The 3 sub-units signal peptide (SP), surface-unit protein (SU) and trans-membrane proteins (TM) are represented by 172 redundant 15mers. The lines represent the average of duplicate signals (OD) for each individual. (B) Sera from patients have antibodies reacting only with the SU-peptide (HIV#1 and #2), only with the TM-peptide (HIV#3 and #4), or negative for both epitopes (HIV#5, #6 and HIV^neg #1), were used to confirm the signal obtained with the peptide-based ELISA. Plain columns represent the peptides and the hatched columns represent the recombinant protein; SU in white and TM in gray. The ELISA was performed in duplicate, and the error bars represent the SEM.