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Journal of Virology, December 2007, p. 12946-12953, Vol. 81, No. 23
0022-538X/07/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.01260-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Laboratories of Chemical Physics,1 Bioorganic Chemistry, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-05202
Received 9 June 2007/ Accepted 18 September 2007
A monoclonal Fab (Fab 3674) selected from a human nonimmune phage library by panning against the chimeric construct NCCG-gp41 (which comprises an exposed coiled-coil trimer of gp41 N helices fused in the helical phase onto the minimal thermostable ectodomain of gp41) is described. Fab 3674 is shown to neutralize diverse laboratory-adapted B strains of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and primary isolates of subtypes A, B, and C in an Env-pseudotyped-virus neutralization assay, albeit with reduced potency (approximately 25-fold) compared to that of 2F5 and 4E10. Alanine scanning mutagenesis maps a novel epitope to a shallow groove on the N helices of gp41 that is exposed between two C helices in the fusogenic six-helix bundle conformation of gp41. Bivalent Fab 3674 and the C34 peptide (a potent fusion inhibitor derived from the C helix of gp41) are shown to act at similar stages of the fusion reaction and to neutralize HIV-1 synergistically, providing additional evidence that the epitope of Fab 3674 is new and distinct from the binding site of C34.
Published ahead of print on 26 September 2007.
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