background and aims: the contribution genetic and antigenic diversity of h9n2 influenza viruses in evading from immune responses, cytotoxic t lymphocytes (ctl) epitopes in hemagglutinin (ha) protein restricted by hla binding peptides was identified. materials and methods: phylogenetic analyses were carried out for all of full length ha and deduced amino acid sequences of h9n2 viruses available ...

introduction: acinetobacter baumannii is associated with hospital-acquired infections. outer membrane protein a of a.baumannii (abompa) is a well-characterized virulence factor which has important roles in pathogenesis of this bacterium. methods: based on our pcr-sequencing of ompa gene in the clinical isolates, abompa protein can be categorized into two types, named here type-1 and type-2. we ...

As the $100B therapeutic monoclonal antibody (mAb) market continues to grow, developers of therapeutic mAbs increasingly face the need to strengthen patent protection of their products and enforce their patents in courts. In view of changes in the patent law landscape, patent applications are strategically using information on the precise binding sites of their mAbs, i.e., the epitopes, to supp...

In the present study, the recognition of epitope variants of influenza A viruses by human CTL was investigated. To this end, human CD8(+) CTL clones, specific for natural variants of the HLA-B*3501-restricted epitope in the nucleoprotein (NP(418-426)), were generated. As determined in (51)Cr release assays and by flow cytometry with HLA-B*3501-peptide tetrameric complexes, CTL clones were found...

Following antigenic challenge, MHC-restricted T cell responses are directed against a few dominant antigenic epitopes. Here, evidence is provided demonstrating the importance of APC in modulating the hierarchy of MHC class II-restricted T cell responses. Biochemical analysis of class II:peptide complexes in B cells revealed the presentation of a hierarchy of peptides derived from the Ig self Ag...

Our previous work showed that the proteoglycan aggrecan can induce erosive polyarthritis and spondylitis in BALB/c mice, and that the G1 domain of the proteoglycan aggrecan (G1) is the arthritogenic region. In this study, two T cell epitopes residing on G1 within residues 70-84 (peptide G5) and 150-169 (peptide G9) were identified using synthetic peptides and aggrecan-specific T cell lines. Two...

An epitope present in the 71-90 sequence of basic protein (BP) has been identified as the dominant epitope recognized by most Lewis rat encephalitogenic T cells isolated during experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). In the present study, we investigated the BP epitopes recognized by Lewis rat T cells in naive rats, in rats suffering from acute EAE, and in recovered rats. T cells isola...

The intense selection pressure exerted by virus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) on replicating human immunodeficiency virus and simian immunodeficiency virus results in the accumulation of CTL epitope mutations. It has been assumed that fitness costs can limit the evolution of CTL epitope mutations. However, only a limited number of studies have carefully examined this possibility. To ex...

BACKGROUND Human infections with highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza viruses have generally been confirmed by molecular amplification or culture-based methods. Serologic surveillance has potential advantages which have not been realized because rapid and specific serologic tests to detect H5N1 infection are not widely available. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Here we describe an epitope-bl...

Natural infection with Neisseria gonorrhoeae may elicit a substantial antibody response directed against gonococcal lipooligosaccharide. Monoclonal antibody (MAb) 2C7 recognized a gonococcal lipooligosaccharide epitope, identified the epitope directly in 94% of 68 consecutive culture-positive genital secretions, and recognized 95% of 101 randomly chosen fresh (second-passage) gonococcal isolate...