OBJECTIVE Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) is the causative agent of postweaning multisystemic syndrome in pigs. The capsid (Cap) protein encoded by ORF2 is the main structural protein involved in the host immune protective response to PCV2. It is therefore important to map the antigenic epitopes of the PCV2 Cap protein. METHODS In this study, 5 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against the recomb...

Mapping the epitope of an antibody is of great interest, since it contributes much to our understanding of the mechanisms of molecular recognition and provides the basis for rational vaccine design. Here we present Mapitope, a computer algorithm for epitope mapping. The algorithm input is a set of affinity isolated peptides obtained by screening phage display peptide-libraries with the antibody...

ternative approach is the usage of filamentous phage libraries that display random sets of peptides. Panning of these libraries with the antibody of interest will select peptides that are involved in antibody-antigen interaction and that may mimic conformational B cell epitopes. The article of Tiwari et al. [4] in this issue describes the mapping of a conformational epitope on the major cockroa...

background hypervariability of hcv proteins is an important obstacle to design an efficient vaccine for hcv infection. multi-epitope vaccines containing conserved epitopes of the virus could be a promising approach for protection against hcv. objectives cellular and humoral immune responses against multi-epitope dna and peptide vaccines were evaluated in balb/c mice. materials and methods in th...

The solid-phase synthesis of a cyclic peptide containing the 21-residue epitope found in the A-B loop of the Cepsilon3 domain of human immunoglobulin E has been carried out. The key macrocyclization step to form the 65-membered ring is achieved in approximately 15% yield via an "on-resin" Sonogashira coupling reaction which concomitantly installs a diphenylacetylene amino acid conformational co...