Structural and immunological characterization of Friend murine leukaemia virus glycopolypeptide using synthetic oligopeptides.

Abstract

Using terminal position, hydrophilicity, predicted reverse turns and type specificity as criteria, five oligopeptides were selected for synthesis from the amino acid sequence of the envelope glycopolypeptide gp70 of Friend murine leukaemia virus. These peptides corresponded to the amino acids 6‐12 (pep1), 124‐131 (pep2), 256‐262 (pep3), 283‐290 (pep4) and 434‐441 (pep5). After coupling to carriers, bovine serum albumin or keyhole limpet hemocyanin, antisera were prepared in rabbits. All of the five oligopeptides were immunogenic and pep1, pep2, pep4 and pep5 were able to elicit antibodies to the native glycopolypeptide. These sequence‐specific antisera distinguished between glycoproteins of different leukaemia viruses. At least three of the selected peptides, the type‐specific oligopeptides pep3, pep4 and pep5, were found to be natural epitopes of gp70.

Synthetic Vaccines against Friend Murine Leukaemia Virus-induced Erythroleukaemia: in vivo and in vitro Studies with Synthetic Oligopeptides and Sequence-specific Antisera

“…Gp70 was purified as described earlier (Bayer et al, 1984) by centrifugation from the culture supernatant of FES cells and by affinity chromatography using concanavalin A-Sepharose.…”

“…Determination of specific antibodies in immune sera. Specific antibodies in mouse and rabbit sera were determined by an indirect ELISA (Bayer et al, 1984). Synthetic peptides and viral glycopolypeptides were used as antigens.…”

“…We described earlier synthetic peptides and their use for structural and immunological characterization of the Friend murine leukaemia virus (FLV) glycoprotein gp70 (Bayer et aL, 1984). These peptides had been selected according to the amino acid sequence of the gp70 (Koch et al, 1983) and corresponded to the amino acids 6 to 12 (pepl), 124 to 131 (pep2), 256 to 262 (pep3), 283 to 290 (pep4) and 434 to 441 (pep5).…”

“…These peptides had been selected according to the amino acid sequence of the gp70 (Koch et al, 1983) and corresponded to the amino acids 6 to 12 (pepl), 124 to 131 (pep2), 256 to 262 (pep3), 283 to 290 (pep4) and 434 to 441 (pep5). To choose the peptides, the amino acid sequence of the glycopolypeptide had been analysed and hydrophilicity, terminal position, predicted 0000-7320 O 1987 SGM reverse turns and type specificity were used as criteria for selection (Bayer et al, 1984). Pepl and pep5 were terminal sequences of gp70.…”

“…Moreover, pep3, pep4 and pep5 were found to be native epitopes of gp70 (Bayer et al, 1984). Active immunization with isolated gp70 revealed that antibodies to gp70 effectively prevent FLV-induced erythroleukaemia (Hunsmann, 1985).…”