The antigenic proteins of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) have been defined. We used synthetic peptides of secreted antigens, early secreted antigenic target 6 (ESAT-6) and cultural filtrate protein-10 (CFP-10), of Mtb and characterized the immune response in context of HLA genes. Humanized mice lacking endogenous class II molecules but expressing various human DR and DQ HLA transgenes singly ...

The absence of an available animal model or a consistent in vitro culture system for the replication of the hepatitis C virus (HCV), have seriously limited the research on the immunological role of their main antigens. In the present paper, four HCV E2 protein variants were obtained from recombinant microorganisms. Particularly, the E2.680 protein (384-680 aa) constitutes the first E2 protein v...

From a collection of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) that recognize the native structure of the toxin-coregulated pilus of Vibrio cholerae, two protective MAbs (16.1 and 169.1) were used to localize the corresponding epitopes on the pilus. These MAbs were shown to specifically recognize the carboxyl half of the TcpA pilin subunit, as determined by their recognition of proteolytic fragments and hyb...

BACKGROUND Dengue virus infection is a growing global public health concern in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Dengue vaccine development has been hampered by concerns that cross-reactive immunological memory elicited by a candidate vaccine could increase the risk of development of more severe clinical forms. One possible strategy to reduce risks associated with a dengue vaccine ...

Identification of promiscuous or multideterminant T cell epitopes is essential for HIV vaccine development, however, current methods for T cell epitope identification are both cost intensive and labor intensive. We have developed a computer-driven algorithm, named EpiMer, which searches protein amino acid sequences for putative MHC class I- and/or class II-restricted T cell epitopes. This algor...

Vaccination with live attenuated classical swine fever virus (CSFV) vaccines induces a rapid onset of protection which has been associated with virus-specific CD8 T cell IFN-γ responses. In this study, we assessed the specificity of this response, by screening a peptide library spanning the CSFV C-strain vaccine polyprotein to identify and characterise CD8 T cell epitopes. Synthetic peptides we...

The commercial availability of random peptide libraries displayed on the M13 phage is increasing their use forstudies on epitope identification, enzyme inhibitors, receptor ligands, etc. In this study two experimentswhere planned for selection of peptides. First with sheep antibodies, the positive selector was IgG, preparedon Protein G column from a pool of 11 sheeps immunized...

Identification of HLA-restricted CD8+ T cell epitopes is important to study RSV-induced immunity and illness. We algorithmically analyzed the sequence of the fusion protein (F) of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and generated synthetic peptides that can potentially bind to HLA-A*0201. Four out of the twenty-five 9-mer peptides tested: peptides 3 (F33-41), 13 (F214-222), 14 (F273-281), and 23 ...

Antigen-specific T-helper (Th) lymphocytes are critical for the development of antiviral humoral responses and the expansion of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). Identification of relevant Th lymphocyte epitopes remains an important step in the development of an efficacious subunit peptide vaccine against equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV), a naturally occurring lentivirus of horses. This study...

Influenza viruses continue to be a major health threat in human and bird populations. The improvements in formulation and production level of the current influenza vaccines are not sufficient to afford complete protection. The continuous antigenic drifts and emergence of endemic and zoonotic strains make influenza vaccine planning difficult. Concern about the emergence of new influenza pandemic...