title: Engineering of immunogenic peptides by co-linear synthesis of determinants recognized by B and T cells.
abstract: The potential of synthetic peptides as vaccines is restricted by their frequent lack of immunogenicity. As with haptens, coupling to a carrier protein is usually required to provide T cell help to anti-peptide antibody-producing B cells. In spite of their short length, a few natural or synthetic peptides are immunogenic: they all include both a determinant recognized by B cells and a proven or putative determinant recognized by T cells. We speculated that it should be possible to induce immunogenicity in peptide haptens by the inclusion of a well characterized determinant recognized by T cells. We thus synthesized two peptides, corresponding to different regions of the major protein VP6 of bovine rotavirus, co-linearly linked to a peptide of influenza virus hemagglutinin which had been shown to induce T helper cells in BALB/c mice. Both peptides induced anti-rotavirus antibodies and were more immunogenic than the corresponding bovine serum albumin-conjugated peptides.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000096:biosynthesis; D000917:Antibody Formation; D000941:Antigens / Q000276:immunology*; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000276:immunology; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D000939:Epitopes; D051379:Mice; D009842:Oligopeptides / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000276:immunology*; D012401:Rotavirus / Q000276:immunology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic / Q000276:immunology*; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D014765:Viral Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D000941:Antigens; D000956:Antigens, Viral; D000939:Epitopes; D009842:Oligopeptides; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic; D014764:Viral Proteins; D014765:Viral Vaccines