Phage display of peptide epitopes from HIV-1 elicits strong cytolytic responses.

Although much effort has been expended on evaluating recombinant proteins and synthetic peptides as immunogens, they have generally proved incapable of inducing an efficient cytotoxic T-cell (CTL) response. Filamentous bacteriophage fd can display multiple copies of foreign peptides in the N-terminal region of its major coat protein pVIII, 2,700 copies of which make up the virus capsid. Here we show that fd virions displaying peptide RT2 (ILKEPVHGV), corresponding to residues 309-317 of the reverse transcriptase (RTase) of HIV-1, are able to prime a CTL response specific for this HIV-1 epitope in human cell lines.