title: Thioredoxin-Displayed Multipeptide Immunogens.
abstract: Fusion to carrier proteins is an effective strategy for stabilizing and providing immunogenicity to peptide epitopes. This is commonly achieved by cross-linking of chemically synthesized peptides to carrier proteins. An alternative approach is internal grafting of selected peptide epitopes to a scaffold protein via double stranded-oligonucleotide insertion or gene synthesis, followed by recombinant expression of the resulting chimeric polypeptide. The scaffold protein should confer immunogenicity to the stabilized and structurally constrained peptide, but also afford easy production of the antigen in recombinant form. A macromolecular scaffold that meets the above criteria is the redox protein thioredoxin, especially bacterial thioredoxin. Here we describe our current methodology for internal grafting of selected peptide epitopes to thioredoxin as tandemly arranged multipeptide repeats ("Thioredoxin Displayed Multipeptide Immunogens"), bacterial expression and purification of the recombinant thioredoxin-multipeptide fusion proteins and their use as antigens for the production of anti-peptide antibodies for prophylactic vaccine as well as diagnostic purposes.
authors.affiliation: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Unit, Department of Life Sciences, University of Parma, Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Angelo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bolchi
authors.affiliation: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Unit, Department of Life Sciences, University of Parma, Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Canali
authors.affiliation: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Unit, Department of Life Sciences, University of Parma, Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Santoni
authors.affiliation: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Unit, Department of Life Sciences, University of Parma, Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Gloria
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Spagnoli
authors.affiliation: German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Daniele
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Viarisio
authors.affiliation: Infections and Cancer Biology Group, International Agency for Research on Cancer-World Health Organization, Lyon, France.
authors.forename: Rosita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Accardi
authors.affiliation: Infections and Cancer Biology Group, International Agency for Research on Cancer-World Health Organization, Lyon, France.
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tommasino
authors.affiliation: German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.affiliation: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Unit, Department of Life Sciences, University of Parma, Parma, Italy. s.ottonello@unipr.it.|Dipartimento di Bioscienze, Università di Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 23/A, Parma, 43124, Italy. s.ottonello@unipr.it.
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ottonello
mesh_terms: D000941:Antigens / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D018604:Epitope Mapping; D000939:Epitopes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015870:Gene Expression; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D013879:Thioredoxins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000941:Antigens; D002352:Carrier Proteins; D000939:Epitopes; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D013879:Thioredoxins
keywords: Anti-peptide antibodies; Display site; Internal grafting; Peptide epitope; Recombinant peptide antigens; Thermal purification; Thioredoxin; Thioredoxin-displayed multipeptide immunogens