Figure 6. High protein expression and targeting to secretory pathway induced by LAMP luminal domain potentiate the immune response to HIV-Gag.

Balb/c mice were immunized twice with the indicated plasmids, i.d, at 50 µg/mouse. A) The serum of each mouse was collected before the immunization (pre-bleed) and 10 days after the second immunization and the amount of anti-HIV IgG was measured by ELISA. The curves indicate the average O.D. levels obtained at different serum dilutions. B–C) Total splenocytes obtained from individual mice were cultured with p55Gag protein (B), or with the MHC I restricted Gag epitope AMQMLKETI65-73 (C) and IFN-γ production was analyzed by ELISPOT assay. The bars indicate the average of SFC/10⁶ cells, subtracting the values obtained with medium only. D) Mouse serum of individual mice was collected at the indicated time points after immunization with the indicated plasmids. The amount of anti-HIV IgG was measured by ELISA as in (A). The bars indicate the dilution point relative to 50% of the maximum O.D. (IgG titer). The data are representative of three independent experiments. * p<0.05.