On the irrationality of rational design of an HIV vaccine in light of protein intrinsic disorder.

ABSTRACT: The lack of progress in finding an efficient vaccine for a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is daunting. In fact, this search has spanned nearly four decades without much success. There are several objective reasons for such a failure, which include the highly glycosylated nature of HIV-1, the presence of neotopes, and high mutation rates. This article argues that the presence of highly flexible and intrinsically disordered regions in both human anti-HIV-1 antibodies and the major HIV-1immunogen, its surface glycoprotein gp120, represent one of the major causes for the lack of success in utilization of structure-based reverse vaccinology.

SUBMITTER: Uversky VN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7892713 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature