title: Antibodies to cholera toxin synthetic peptides of increasing size and their reactivity with related toxins.
abstract: The role of the size of synthetic peptides in their immunological cross-reactivity with the parent native protein, was investigated using the cholera toxin system. The results show that elongation of a peptide may affect the reactivity of the antibodies it elicits in either positive or negative directions. Thus, elongation by six amino acid residues of each of two peptides of cholera toxin that were incapable of inducing cross-reactive antibodies with the parent protein (CTP2a and CTP5) converted them into peptides with cross-reacting capacity (CTP2b and CTP4, respectively). On the other hand, a similar elongation of another peptide (CTP3) which as such leads to cross-reactive antibodies resulted in a peptide (CTP3a) which was less cross-reactive with a series of proteins related immunologically to the parent protein.
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000276:immunology*; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000276:immunology; D002772:Cholera Toxin / Q000276:immunology*; D003429:Cross Reactions; D006801:Humans; D009500:Neutralization Tests; D010455:Peptides / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000276:immunology*; D011817:Rabbits; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D014734:Vibrio cholerae / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D010455:Peptides; D002772:Cholera Toxin