@article{mbs:/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/0022-1317-78-12-3227, author = "Partidos, C. D. and Ripley, J. and Delmas, A. and Obeid, O. E. and Denbury, A. and Steward, M. W.", title = "Fine specificity of the antibody response to a synthetic peptide from the fusion protein and protection against measles virus-induced encephalitis in a mouse model", journal= "Journal of General Virology", year = "1997", volume = "78", number = "12", pages = "3227-3232", doi = "https://doi.org/10.1099/0022-1317-78-12-3227", url = "https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/0022-1317-78-12-3227", publisher = "Microbiology Society", issn = "1465-2099", type = "Journal Article", abstract = "A synthetic peptide representing residues 397–420 from the measles virus (MV) fusion (F) protein was tested for its structure, immunogenicity and protective capacity against intracerebral challenge with a neuroadapted strain of MV. Analysis of the peptide by mass spectrometry showed that it was linear, despite the presence of two cysteine residues in the sequence. Circular dichroism spectroscopy highlighted a weak preference for the peptide to adopt an α-helical conformation. The peptide was shown to be immunogenic in BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice after intraperitoneal immunization in Freund’s adjuvant, and anti-peptide antibodies from both strains of mice reacted with the MV as a solid phase antigen on an ELISA plate. When the fine specificity of the anti-peptide antibody response was examined using overlapping 8-mer peptides, serum antibodies from BALB/c mice recognized the region between residues 407 –417 whereas antibodies from C57BL/6 mice recognized the region 408 –420 of the 397–420 peptide sequence. Although anti-397–420 antibodies had no demonstrable neutralizing activity, protection against challenge with a neuroadapted strain of MV was demonstrated following active immunization with peptide in C57BL/6 mice or after passive transfer of anti-peptide antibodies in BALB/c mice. These findings highlight the importance of the 397–420 region in the induction of protective antibodies in the MV encephalitis mouse model, and suggest that this epitope might be a good candidate for inclusion in a future MV synthetic peptide vaccine.", }