title: Identification of immunodominant, group-specific and subcomplex-specific, continuous epitopes in the core regions of Japanese encephalitis virus using synthetic peptides.
abstract: Two flaviviruses, Japanese encephalitis (JE) virus and Dengue (DEN) virus which have high pathogenicity for humans, continue to pose a serious public health problem in tropical and subtropical countries of the world. In order to identify the immunodominant B-cell epitopes for diagnostic application, we have prepared a series of 15-mer synthetic peptides from JE virus core protein based on computer analysis. Four linear, immunodominant epitopes corresponding to amino acids 91-105 (P78), 1-15 (P73), 8-22 (P74), and 34-48 (P75) of JE virus core proteins were identified by employing an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), using high-titered immune sera from JE-vaccinated children. P78 was found to be the most immunodominant. The sero-specificity of these peptides was tested by binding to seroconverted samples from JE and DEN-1 patients. P78 and P74 belonged to group-specific epitopes which reacted with both JE and DEN-1 patient sera. P73 and P75 belonged to subcomplex-specific epitopes which reacted only with JE but not with DEN-1 patient sera. The study suggests that these peptides corresponding to the immunodominant epitopes of JE virus core protein might have the potential to be used as peptide-based diagnostic reagents for the detection and differentiation of JE and DEN antibody responses.
authors.affiliation: Division of Biochemistry, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Wey
authors.forename: H F
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: T L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Tsou
authors.forename: C S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chin
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Chien
authors.forename: L K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Y C
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: T M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood; D002648:Child; D003715:Dengue / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology; D003716:Dengue Virus / Q000276:immunology; D004664:Encephalitis Virus, Japanese / Q000276:immunology*; D004672:Encephalitis, Japanese / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology; D018985:Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D016056:Immunodominant Epitopes; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000276:immunology; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014758:Viral Core Proteins / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D018985:Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte; D016056:Immunodominant Epitopes; D010455:Peptides; D014758:Viral Core Proteins