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Choy, W.Y. et al.

Synthetic peptide studies on the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus spike glycoprotein: perspective for SARS vaccine development.

BACKGROUND: The S (spike) protein of the etiologic coronavirus (CoV) agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) plays a central role in mediating viral infection via receptor binding and membrane fusion between the virion and the host cell. We focused on using synthetic peptides for developing antibodies against SARS-CoV, which aimed to block viral invasion by eliciting an immune response specific to the native SARS-CoV S protein. METHODS: Six peptide sequences corresponding to the surface regions of SARS-CoV S protein were designed and investigated by use of combined bioinformatics and structural analysis. These synthetic peptides were used to immunize both rabbits and monkeys. Antisera collected 1 week after the second immunization were analyzed by ELISA and tested for antibody specificity against SARS-CoV by immunofluorescent confocal microscopy. RESULTS: Four of our six synthetic peptides (S2, S3, S5, and S6) elicited SARS-CoV-specific antibodies, of which S5 (residues 788-820) and S6 (residues 1002-1030) exhibited immunogenic responses similar to those found in a parallel investigation using truncated recombinant protein analogs of the SARS-CoV S protein. This suggested that our S5 and S6 peptides may represent two minimum biologically active sequences of the immunogenic regions of the SARS-CoV S protein. CONCLUSIONS: Synthetic peptides can elicit specific antibodies to SARS-CoV. The study provides insights for the future development of SARS vaccine via the synthetic-peptide-based approach.[1]

References

Synthetic peptide studies on the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus spike glycoprotein: perspective for SARS vaccine development. Choy, W.Y., Lin, S.G., Chan, P.K., Tam, J.S., Lo, Y.M., Chu, I.M., Tsai, S.N., Zhong, M.Q., Fung, K.P., Waye, M.M., Tsui, S.K., Ng, K.O., Shan, Z.X., Yang, M., Wu, Y.L., Lin, Z.Y., Ngai, S.M. Clin. Chem. (2004) [Pubmed]

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