Chimeric Synthetic Peptides Containing Two Immunodominant Epitopes from the Envelope gp46 and the Transmembrane gp21 Glycoproteins of HTLV-I Virus

• Published in: Biochemical and biophysical research communications 2001-11, Vol.289 (1), p.1-6
• Main Authors: Hernandez marin, M, Castellanos penton, P, Marquez bocalandro, Y, Pozo pena, L, Diaz navarro, J, Javier gonzalez lopez, L
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; chimeric synthetic peptides; env Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; Gene Products, env - chemistry; Gene Products, env - genetics; Gene Products, env - immunology; glycoprotein gp21; glycoprotein gp46; gp21; gp46; HTLV-I; HTLV-I Antibodies - blood; HTLV-I Antigens - chemistry; HTLV-I Antigens - genetics; HTLV-I Infections - diagnosis; HTLV-I Infections - immunology; Human T-lymphotropic virus 1; Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 - genetics; Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 - immunology; Humans; Immunodominant Epitopes - chemistry; Immunodominant Epitopes - genetics; Molecular Sequence Data; Peptide Fragments - chemistry; Peptide Fragments - genetics; Peptide Fragments - immunology; Recombinant Fusion Proteins - chemistry; Recombinant Fusion Proteins - genetics; Recombinant Fusion Proteins - immunology; Retroviridae Proteins, Oncogenic - chemistry; Retroviridae Proteins, Oncogenic - genetics; Retroviridae Proteins, Oncogenic - immunology; UMELISA
• ISSN: 0006-291X; 1090-2104
• DOI: 10.1006/bbrc.2001.5821

Two chimeric synthetic peptides incorporating immunodominant sequences from HTLV-I virus were synthesized. Monomeric peptides P7 and P8 represent sequences from transmembrane protein (gp21) and envelope protein (gp46) of the virus. The peptide P7 is a gp21 (374–400) sequence and the peptide P8 is a gp46 (190–207) sequence. Those peptides were arranged in a way that permits one to obtain different combinations of chimeric peptides (P7-GG-P8 and P8-GG-P7), separated by two glycine residues as spacer arms. The antigenic activity of these peptides were evaluated by UltramicroEnzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (UMELISA) by using panels of anti-HTLV-I-positive sera (n = 22), anti-HTLV-I/II-positive sera (n = 2), HTLV-positive (untypeable) serum samples (n = 2), and anti-HTLV-II-positive sera (n = 11), while specificity was evaluated with anti-HIV-positive samples (n = 19) and samples from healthy blood donors (n = 30). The efficacy of the chimeric peptides in solid-phase immunoassays was compared with the monomeric peptides and monomeric peptides together. The chimeric peptide P7-GG-P8 proved to be the most reactive with anti-HTLV-I-positive sera. These results may be related to a higher peptide adsorption capacity to the solid surface and for epitope accessibility to the antibodies. This chimeric peptide would be very useful for HTLV-I diagnostics.