title: A novel epitope (pentapeptide) in the human hemoglobin beta chain.
abstract: We have cloned 16 monoclonal antibodies by immunizing mice with human hemoglobin for the purpose of analyzing epitopes in human hemoglobin. By using one, SU-115, which is specific for the beta chain, an epitope in the beta chain reacting with this monoclonal antibody was investigated, and a pentapeptide was identified as a novel epitope. After digestion of the beta chain by lysylendopeptidase, the antigenicity of degradation products was examined. An antigenic fragment against SU-115 was found to be a peptide corresponding to residues 96-120 of the beta chain by amino acid analysis of its N-terminal region. Several peptides involved in the region of beta96-120 were synthesized to be examined for their reactivity to SU-115 using dot-blot analysis and a resonant mirror detection method, and a pentapeptide (N108VLVC) was determined as a major sequence of an epitope. By injecting this pentapeptide into a mouse, an antibody reacting human hemoglobin (alpha2beta2) in the same order of strength as SU-115, was obtained. The pentapeptide described in this paper seems to be the minimum size as a major sequence of the actual epitope in human hemoglobin so far reported, and in the primary structure of this region (108-112) there is a difference of three amino acids between human and mouse hemoglobin.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Nishi-Tokyo Metropolitan Police Hospital, Kokubunji, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Endo
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Nunomura
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takakuwa
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hatakeyama
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Higashi
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000276:immunology; D000918:Antibody Specificity; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D016056:Immunodominant Epitopes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009842:Oligopeptides / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D006454:Hemoglobins; D016056:Immunodominant Epitopes; D009842:Oligopeptides