Fusion proteins of HIV regulatory/accessory proteins
AssigneeBavarian Nordic A/S
InventorsPaul Howley, Sonja Leyrer, Eva Felder
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Abstract
The invention relates to fusion proteins comprising the amino acid sequence of at least three HIV proteins selected from Vif, Vpr, Vpu, Rev, and Tat or derivatives of the amino acid sequence of one or more of said proteins, wherein the fusion protein is not processed to individual HIV proteins having the natural N and C termini. The invention further concerns nucleic acids encoding said proteins, vectors comprising said nucleic acids, and methods for producing said proteins. The fusion protein, nucleic acids and vectors are usable as vaccines for the at least partial prophylaxis against HIV infections.
Claims24
A method of producing a fusion protein comprising
- (a) transfecting or infecting an animal cell with a vector encoding the fusion protein,
- wherein the fusion protein comprises an amino acid sequence of at least three non-attenuated HIV regulatory and accessory proteins selected from the group consisting of Vif, Vpr, Vpu, Vpx, Rev, and Tat,
- wherein the regulatory and accessory proteins are not separated by specific cleavage sequences for a cellular protease,
- thereby avoiding processing to yield regulatory and accessory proteins with native N- and C-termini;
- (b) expressing the fusion protein in the animal cell;
- and
- (c) recovering the fusion protein.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.