title: Fine specificity of the antibody response to a synthetic peptide from the fusion protein and protection against measles virus-induced encephalitis in a mouse model.
abstract: A synthetic peptide representing residues 397-420 from the measles virus (MV) fusion (F) protein was tested for its structure, immunogenicity and protective capacity against intracerebral challenge with a neuroadapted strain of MV. Analysis of the peptide by mass spectrometry showed that it was linear, despite the presence of two cysteine residues in the sequence. Circular dichroism spectroscopy highlighted a weak preference for the peptide to adopt an alpha-helical conformation. The peptide was shown to be immunogenic in BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice after intraperitoneal immunization in Freund's adjuvant, and anti-peptide antibodies from both strains of mice reacted with the MV as a solid phase antigen on an ELISA plate. When the fine specificity of the anti-peptide antibody response was examined using overlapping 8-mer peptides, serum antibodies from BALB/c mice recognized the region between residues 407-417 whereas antibodies from C57BL/6 mice recognized the region 408-420 of the 397-420 peptide sequence. Although anti-397-420 antibodies had no demonstrable neutralizing activity, protection against challenge with a neuroadapted strain of MV was demonstrated following active immunization with peptide in C57BL/6 mice or after passive transfer of anti-peptide antibodies in BALB/c mice. These findings highlight the importance of the 397-420 region in the induction of protective antibodies in the MV encephalitis mouse model, and suggest that this epitope might be a good candidate for inclusion in a future MV synthetic peptide vaccine.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Infectious Diseases, The Royal Veterinary College, London, UK. hpartido@rvc.ac.uk
authors.forename: C D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Partidos
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ripley
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Delmas
authors.forename: O E
authors.initials: OE
authors.lastname: Obeid
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Denbury
authors.forename: M W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Steward
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000276:immunology*; D000918:Antibody Specificity; D008457:Measles / Q000276:immunology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D008459:Measles virus / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology; D014765:Viral Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D010455:Peptides; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D014765:Viral Vaccines