G.J. LaRosa, J.P. Davide, K. Weinhold, J.A. Waterbury, et al., "Conserved sequence and structural elements in the HIV-1 principal neutralizing determinant," Science, 249:932-35, 1990.
Gregory LaRosa (Repligen Corp., Cambridge, Mass.): "The third variable region--known as the V3 loop--of the HIV-1 envelope protein has been the most attractive target for an HIV-1 vaccine preparation because antibodies capable of neutralizing the viral infectivity, either from infected patients' serum or from animals immunized with recombinant envelope protein, predominantly bind this region. However, sequence comparisons of the V3 loop obtained from previously cloned and sequenced virus isolates indicated that this region of the virus is hypervariable. Because of this hypervariability, it was thought that a V3 vaccine component would protect against only a small proportion of the total HIV-1 virus population.
"The work described in the paper defined more accurately the extent of V3 sequence variability by sequencing this region from a large number ...
