A retro-inverso peptide corresponding to the GH loop of foot-and-mouth disease virus elicits high levels of long-lasting protective neutralizing antibodies.
Peptides corresponding to the immunodominant loop located at residues 135-158 on capsid protein VP1 of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) generally elicit high levels of anti-peptide and virus-neutralizing antibodies. In some instances, however, the level of neutralizing antibodies is low or even negligible, even though the level of anti-peptide antibodies is high. We have shown previously that the antigenic activity of peptide 141-159 of VP1 of a variant of serotype A can be mimicked by a retro-inverso (all-D retro or retroenantio) peptide analogue. This retro-inverso analogue induced greater and longer-lasting antibody titers than did the corresponding L-peptide. We now show that a single inoculation of the retro-inverso analogue elicits high levels of neutralizing antibodies that persist longer than those induced against the corresponding L-peptide and confer substantial protection in guinea pigs challenged with the cognate virus. In view of the high stability to proteases of retro-inverso peptide analogues and their enhanced immunogenicity, these results have practical relevance in designing potential peptide vaccines.
Briand
J P
JP
Institut de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Unité Propre de Recherche 9021, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Strasbourg, France.
Benkirane
N
N
Guichard
G
G
Newman
J F
JF
Van Regenmortel
M H
MH
Brown
F
F
Muller
S
S
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000276:immunology*; D002213:Capsid / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D005536:Foot-and-Mouth Disease / Q000276:immunology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D007116:Immunization, Passive; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*; D010849:Picornaviridae / Q000276:immunology*
D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D010455:Peptides