Compared to conventional antisera strategies, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) represent an alternative and safer way treat botulism, a fatal flaccid paralysis due botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs). In addition, mAbs offer the advantage be produced in reproducible manner. We previously identified unique potent mouse mAb (TA12) targeting BoNT/A1 with high affinity neutralizing activity. this study, we c...

Autoantibodies to the diabetes autoantigen, the 65kDa isoform of glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD65), react with conformational epitopes defined according to linear sequences but not according to structural information, or contact sites with the antibody paratope. To ascertain such information for an exemplary human monoclonal antibody (mAb) to GAD65, b78, we combined antibody screening of phag...

Integrin heterodimers undergo a conformational change upon the binding of ligand to their extracellular domains. An anti-β1 integrin monoclonal antibody AG89 can detect such a conformational change since it recognizes a ligandinducible epitope in the stalk-like region of β1 subunits. The binding of a 125I-labeled AG89 Fab fragment to α5β1 integrins on K562 cells was assessed and analyzed by the...

Oligosaccharides consisting of one or more tetrasaccharide repeating units were derived from the capsular polysaccharide of type 14 pneumococcus (Pn14) by endo-beta-galactosidase digestion. The relative affinity of anticapsular antibody binding to derivative oligosaccharides of different chain lengths was measured in a Pn 14 ELISA inhibition assay. The concentration of inhibiting antigen requir...

Nonstructural protein 3 (NS3) of hepatitis C virus (HCV), codes for protease and helicase carrying NTPase enzymatic activities, plays a crucial role in viral replication and an ideal target for diagnosis, antiviral therapy and vaccine development. In this study, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to NS3 helicase were characterized by epitope mapping and biological function test. A total of 29 monoclo...

Identification of epitopes which invokes strong humoral responses is an essential issue in the field of immunology. Various computational methods that have been developed based on the antigen structures and the mimotopes these years narrow the search for experimental validation. These methods can be divided into two categories: antigen structure-based methods and mimotope-based methods. Though ...

Epitope recognition by major histocompatibility complex II (MHC-II) is essential for the activation of immunological responses to infectious diseases. Several studies have demonstrated that this molecular event takes place in the MHC-II peptide-binding groove constituted by the α and β light chains of the heterodimer. This MHC-II peptide-binding groove has several pockets (P1-P11) involved in p...

Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is the most common autoimmune subepidermal blistering disorder caused by autoantibodies targeting BP180 and BP230. The major pathogenic epitope of BP non-collagenous 16th A (NC16A) domain BP180. However, often recognize non-NC16A epitopes, which include conformational epitopes BP180, within its triple-helical collagenous structure. Epidemiological studies have shown that...

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 ...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Naturally occurring anti-idiotypic antibodies structurally mimic the original antibody epitope. Anti-idiotypes, therefore, are interesting tools for the portrayal of conformational B-cell epitopes of allergens. In this study we used this strategy particularly for major timothy grass pollen (Phleum pratense) allergen Phl p 1. METHODS AND RESULTS: We used a combinatorial pha...