A single 9-amino acid peptide of the defined murine cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitope (named peptide-1), which corresponds to the amino acid residues 298-306 (GYISTRVEM) of NS3 of dengue virus serotypes DEN-2 and 4, was examined for induction of specific CTLs. Immunization of BALB/c mice subcutaneously with the peptide-1 emulsified with complete Freund adjuvant (CFA) did not induce specific ...

Cockroaches have been recognized as a major cause of asthma. Bla g 4 is one of the most important German cockroach allergens. The aim of this study is to investigate IgE reactivity to the recombinant Bla g 4 (rBla g 4) in the sera of allergic patients and identify linear IgE binding epitope. For protein expression, full-length Bla g 4 (EF202172) was divided into 5 overlapping peptide fragments ...

Peptide-based vaccines are attractive approaches for cancer immunotherapy; but the success of these vaccines in clinical trials have been limited. Our goal is to improve immune responses and anti-tumor effects against a synthetic, multi-epitope, long peptide from rat Her2/neu (rHer2/neu) using the help of CD4+ T cells and appropriate adjuvant in a mouse tumor model. Female BALB/c mice were vacc...

Abstract Demyelinating diseases can be driven by CD4 T cells specific for self-antigen derived from myelin in the central nervous system (CNS). Mouse models utilizing peptide induction protocols may restrict breadth of cell specificity. Here, we compare mice induced with a fragment oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG), recombinant extracellular domain (ECD), and full-length MOG protein, which inc...

The development of vaccines and other immunotherapies has been complicated by heterogeneous antigen display and the use of incompletely defined immune adjuvants with complex mechanisms of action. We have observed strong antibody responses in mice without the coadministration of any additional adjuvant by noncovalently assembling a T and B cell epitope peptide into nanofibers using a short C-ter...

Crystal structures of distinct mAbs that recognize a common epitope of a peptide Ag have been determined and analyzed in the unbound and bound forms. These Abs display dissimilar binding site structures in the absence of the Ag. The dissimilarity is primarily expressed in the conformations of complementarity-determining region H3, which is responsible for defining the epitope specificity. Inter...

We previously reported that cholera toxin (CT) was required as a mucosal adjuvant for the induction of peptide-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) following intranasal immunization with CTL epitope peptides (A. Porgador et al., J. Immunol. 158:834-841, 1997). The present study was performed to identify the site and the antigen-presenting cell (APC) population responsible for the presentation...

The X-ray crystal structures of an anti-p24 (HIV-1) monoclonal antibody Fab fragment alone and in complexes with the epitope peptide GATPQDLNTnL (n = norleucine), an epitope-homologous peptide GATPEDLNQKLAGN, as well as two unrelated peptides GLYEWGGARITNTD and efslkGpllqwrsG (D-peptide), are presented to a maximum resolution of 2.6 A. The latter three peptides were identified from screening sy...

Previous work established that binding of the 11-5.2 anti-I-A(k) mAb, which recognizes the Ia.2 epitope on I-A(k) class II molecules, elicits MHC class II signaling, whereas binding of two other anti-I-A(k) mAbs that recognize the Ia.17 epitope fail to elicit signaling. Using a biochemical approach, we establish that the Ia.2 epitope recognized by the widely used 11-5.2 mAb defines a subset of ...

MUC1 mucin is a large transmembrane glycoprotein, of which the extracellular domain is formed by a repeating 20 amino acid sequence, GVTSAPDTRPAPGSTAPPAH. In normal breast epithelial cells, the extracellular domain is densely covered with highly branched complex carbohydrate structures. However, in neoplastic breast tissue, the extracellular domain is underglycosylated, resulting in the exposur...