The concept that HLA antibodies are specific for epitopes rather than HLA antigens is important not only for the determination of mismatch acceptability for sensitized patients but also for a better understanding of the antibody response to an HLA mismatch. Numerous publications describe epitope-specific antibodies, but there is no standardized information about the repertoire of clinically rel...

After the implementation of an active surveillance programme for scrapie in sheep in the EU, the number of diagnosed classical scrapie cases rose sharply and a novel kind of so-called atypical scrapie case was discovered. These atypical scrapie cases display unusual features concerning the distribution of the abnormal prion protein (PrP(Sc)) in the brain, a distinct electrophoretic profile of P...

We evaluated the immunogenicity and efficacy of a candidate vaccine comprising the major outer membrane protein (MOMP) multi-epitope of Chlamydia trachomatis. A short gene of multi-epitope derived from MOMP containing multiple T- and B-cell epitopes was artificially synthesized. The recombinant plasmid pET32a(+) containing codon optimized MOMP multi-epitope gene was constructed. Expression of t...

The cytotoxic T cell response to pathogens is usually directed against a few immunodominant epitopes, while other potential epitopes are either subdominant or not used at all. In C57BL/6 mice, the acute cytotoxic T cell response against lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus is directed against immunodominant epitopes derived from the glycoprotein (gp33-41) and the nucleoprotein (NP396-404), while ...

BACKGROUND The VP1 protein of duck hepatitis A virus (DHAV) is a major structural protein that induces neutralizing antibodies in ducks; however, B-cell epitopes on the VP1 protein of duck hepatitis A genotype 1 virus (DHAV-1) have not been characterized. METHODS AND RESULTS To characterize B-cell epitopes on VP1, we used the monoclonal antibody (mAb) 2D10 against Escherichia coli-expressed V...

Dengue virus (DENV) nonstructural protein 1 (NS1) is a major target of humoral immunity in patients and is believed to be involved in DENV pathogenesis. In addition, NS1 is a diagnostic target as it is secreted, and circulates, in patients' plasma at an early stage of viral infection. In this study, we aimed to identify common epitope regions for all serotypes by preparation of mouse monoclonal...

BACKGROUND HCMV phosphoprotein 65 (HCMVpp65) is a putative immunogen that acts as an accelerator, inducing autoantibody and exacerbating autoimmune response in susceptible animals. The immunity to pp65336-439 instigates autoimmunity, suggesting that pp65336-439 contains crucial B cell epitope(s) for the development of nephritis. This study narrowed down the target epitope to pp65422-439 for imm...

CD8(+) T lymphocytes (T(CD8)) responding to subdominant epitopes provide alternate targets for the immunotherapy of cancer, particularly when self-tolerance limits the response to immunodominant epitopes. However, the mechanisms that promote T(CD8) subdominance to tumor Ags remain obscure. We investigated the basis for the lack of priming against a subdominant tumor epitope following immunizati...

This study addresses the relationship of epitope-specific Ab responses and alternative autoantibody responses in a model system in which an antigenized self protein serves as the carrier for a defined heterologous B cell epitope. Ubiquitin, a nonimmunogenic self protein, was engineered to present heterologous B and T cell epitopes in the recombinant molecule. Fusion to the C terminus introduced...

Biological discovery in the postgenomic era requires a systematic and high-throughput experimental approach. To this end, a versatile PCR-based tandem epitope tagging system is described, which inserts a tandem epitope coding sequence into any desired position of the Escherichia coli chromosome. Template plasmids were constructed that carry tandem copies of the epitope encoding sequence, Flp re...