18 Background: In rheumatoid arthritis (RA), anti-citrullinated protein/peptide antibodies (ACPAs) 19 are responsible for disease onset and progression, however, our knowledge is limited on ligand 20 binding affinities of autoantibodies with different citrulline-peptide specificity. 21 Methods: Citrulline-peptide specific ACPA IgGs were affinity purified and tested by ELISA. 22 Binding affiniti...

This report describes the identification and bioinformatics analysis of HLA-DR4-restricted HIV-1 Gag epitope peptides, and the application of dendritic cell mediated immunization of DNA plasmid constructs. BALB/c (H-2d) and HLA-DR4 (DRA1*0101, DRB1*0401) transgenic mice were immunized with immature dendritic cells transfected by a recombinant DNA plasmid encoding the lysosome-associated membran...

Phage display peptide libraries are widely used in various protein-protein interaction studies to determine the immunological binding of proteins and epitope mapping of different targets. In the present study, the peptide library is used to identify the Fab binding epitope site of Tetanus Toxoid (TT). The peptides were screened against Fab by biopanning, using a random peptide 12mer phage displ...

BACKGROUND In rheumatoid arthritis (RA), anti-citrullinated protein/peptide antibodies (ACPAs) are responsible for disease onset and progression, however, our knowledge is limited on ligand binding affinities of autoantibodies with different citrulline-peptide specificity. METHODS Citrulline-peptide-specific ACPA IgGs were affinity purified and tested by ELISA. Binding affinities of ACPA IgGs...

The protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) IA-2 and phogrin (IA-2beta) are major autoantigens in type 1 diabetes that possess common serological epitopes in their COOH termini. The epitopes recognized by the T-cells that cause the disease, however, remain to be defined. Eight phogrin-specific T-cell clones were generated from NOD mice, and their epitopes were mapped. The mapping was performed ini...

Recombinant antibody phage display technology is a vital tool that facilitates identification of specific binding molecules to a target enabling the rapid generation and selection of high affinity, fully human, or mouse antibody product candidates essentially directed towards disease target appropriate for antibody therapy. In this study, a recombinant single-chain Fv antibody fragment (scFv) A...

Recombinant viral or virus-like particles offer new tools for vaccine development. This study investigated hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg) capsids and RNA phage Qbeta coats as carriers of a foreign epitope to induce antibody responses in mice. HBcAg capsids were shown to induce T cell-independent (TI) antibodies. We found that these particles behave as antigen-specific TI type 1 (TI-1) Ag comp...

The 11S globulins are members of the cupin protein superfamily and represent an important class of tree nut allergens for which a number of linear epitopes have been mapped. However, specific conformational epitopes for these allergens have yet to be described. We have recently reported a cashew Ana o 2 conformational epitope defined by murine mAb 2B5 and competitively inhibited by a subset of ...

The identification and epitope mapping of broadly neutralizing anti-human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) antibodies (Abs) is important for vaccine design, but, despite much effort, very few such Abs have been forthcoming. Only one broadly neutralizing anti-gp41 monoclonal Ab (MAb), 2F5, has been described. Here we report on two MAbs that recognize a region immediately C-terminal of the 2...