To counteract the problems associated with the purification of HIV envelope, we developed a new purification method exploiting the high affinity of a peptide mimicking CD4 towards the viral glycoprotein. This miniCD4 was used as a ligand in affinity chromatography and allowed the separation in one step of HIV envelope monomer from cell supernatant and the capture of pre-purified trimer. This simple and robust method of purification yielded to active and intact HIV envelopes as proved by the binding of CCR5 HIV co-receptor, CD4 and a panel of well-characterized monoclonal antibodies. The immunogenicity of miniCD4-purified HIV envelope was further assessed in rats. The analysis of the humoral response indicated that elicited antibodies were able to recognize a broad range of HIV envelopes. Finally, this method based on a chemically synthesized peptide may represent a convenient and versatile tool for protein purification compatible far scale-up in both academic and pharmaceutical researches.

中文翻译：

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一种基于CD4模拟肽制备HIV-1包膜糖蛋白免疫原的简单一步法。

为了解决与HIV包膜纯化相关的问题，我们开发了一种新的纯化方法，该方法利用了模拟CD4的肽对病毒糖蛋白的高亲和力。将该miniCD4用作亲和色谱中的配体，使一步一步从细胞上清液中分离出HIV包膜单体，并捕获了预纯化的三聚体。这种简单而强大的纯化方法可产生活性和完整的HIV包膜，如CCC5 HIV共同受体，CD4和一组特征明确的单克隆抗体的结合所证明的。miniCD4纯化的HIV包膜的免疫原性在大鼠中进一步评估。体液反应的分析表明，所引发的抗体能够识别多种HIV包膜。最后，