Conformational consequences of coupling bullous pemphigoid antigenic peptides to glutathione-S-transferase and their diagnostic significance

A peptide of human muscarinic acetylcholine receptor 3 is antigenic in primary Sjögren's syndrome

“…This form of presentation increased the antigenicity of the peptide, as demonstrated by the 97% sensitivity of this assay. With reference to our conformational studies on this topic [6], we suggest that the higher efficiency and fidelity of the GSTeKRSE fusion product are due to the avidity effect of GST dimer formation and to the beneficial local conformational consequences. A more standard coating of the fusion antigen also contributed to a more reliable and reproducible immunoassay.…”

“…The crude peptide was purified by reversephase HPLC and was characterized by mass spectrometry. The detailed procedure is to be found in [6].…”

Experimental bullous pemphigoid generated in mice with an antigenic epitope of the human hemidesmosomal protein BP230

“…In previous investigations, we demonstrated that the tandem repetitions of antigenic epitopes increased the ligand affinity and the immune reactivity with the sera of BP patients [22]. We have observed that GST-fusion forms with the antigenic epitopes exhibited an increasing contribution of alfahelix conformation in the multimer form, thereby increasing the immunogenicity of the construct [30]. Our recombinant protein also contained an antigenic epitope (BP2) of the human BP180, but the sequence of this peptide is completely different from that of its mouse counterpart.…”

Autoantibodies to Human α6 Integrin in Patients with Bullous Pemphigoid

“…In previous investigations, we demonstrated that tandem repetitions of antigenic epitopes increased the ligand affinity and the immune reactivity with the sera of BP patients 19. We have observed that GST fusion forms with the antigenic epitopes to exhibit an increasing contribution of a‐helix conformation in the dimer or multimer form, thereby enhancing the immunogenicity of the construct 22…”