Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
2407522 Vaccine 2008 5 Pages PDF
Abstract

The immunization of goats with a synthetic peptide encompassing the G5 antigenic site of the rabies virus surface glycoprotein induces a strong humoral immune response in the absence of a carrier protein. The immunized animals mounted high antibody titers and showed a strong avidity maturation of the B cell immune response to both the G5-peptide and purified surface glycoprotein G. This antibody weakly neutralized rabies virus carrying the G5 epitope but failed to neutralize escape mutants carrying a single point mutation in this epitope. A putative T helper cell epitope, functional in the context of different caprine MHC haplotypes, was identified by structure analysis of the G5-peptide. This striking dichotomy between high titers and antibody of high avidity to the glycoprotein G and poor neutralizing activity strongly suggests that antibody binding assays such as ELISA cannot always reliably predict the neutralizing activity of sera as measured in functional assays.

Related Topics
Life Sciences Immunology and Microbiology Immunology
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