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

Abstract

SUMMARYBiological activities of antisera against synthetic oligopeptides were examined. The peptide antisera were directed against amino acids 6 to 12 (pepl), 124 to 131 (pep2), 256 to 262 (pep3), 283 to 290 (pep4) and 434 to 441 (pep5) of the viral envelope glycoprotein (gp70). Peptide-specific antisera did not neutralize viral infectivity. However, antibodies to pep4 and pep5, which bound to the hydrophobic part of gp70, mediated the complement-dependent lysis of Friend murine leukaemia virus (FLV)-infected cells. STU mice were immunized against FLV-induced erythroleukaemia with synthetic oligopeptides. Vaccines containing only one of these peptides (single-peptide vaccines) as well as multi-peptide vaccines containing pepl, -4, -5 or pepl, -2, -3, -4, -5 were used. Whereas the immunizations with single-peptide vaccines did not protect the immunized mice from FLV-induced erythroleukaemia, multi-peptide vaccines enhanced the survival rate and incubation period after FLV challenge. These results revealed that immunological reactions distinct from neutralizing antibodies can be evoked by immunization with synthetic peptides and can confer limited protection against FLV-induced erythroleukaemia.

Host Genetic Control of Spontaneous and Induced Immunity to Friend Murine Retrovirus Infection

“…Previously protective immunity against FV has been induced in mice using killed virions (43), purifi ed envelope protein (44,45), or envelope peptides (46). Furthermore, this system might have particular relevance to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection because both HIV and FV are capable of induction of profound immunosuppression during the course of infection.…”

Identification of linear epitopes on Semliki Forest virus E2 membrane protein and their effectiveness as a synthetic peptide vaccine

“…for FMDV (Bittle et al, 1982;Dimarchi et al, 1986) and HBV (Itoh et al, 1986;Thornton et al, 1987). For other viruses, like murine hepatitis virus (Talbot et al, 1988), Friend murine leukaemia virus (Bayer & Hunsmann, 1987), influenza virus (MUller et al, 1982) and herpes simplex virus (Eisenberg et al, 1985;Weijer et al, 1988), the neutralizing and protective properties of antipeptide antibodies have been weak or absent. Furthermore, a problem in the development of peptide vaccines is that for many viral diseases it is not possible to measure protection, owing to the lack of a suitable animal model.…”

Virus Neutralizing and Enhancing Epitopes Characterized by Synthetic Oligopeptides Derived from the Feline Leukaemia Virus Glycoprotein Sequence

“…Synthetic peptides corresponding to potential antigenic sites may be useful tools for the immunological characterization of gp85. In addition, peptides mimicking epitopes of defined antigenicity are candidate antigens for incorporation into a synthetic vaccine, as shown earlier using Friend murine leukaemia virus (Bayer & Hunsmann, 1987). Such a subunit vaccine preparation has a distinct advantage, as the region of pl5E that suppresses the immune response (Snyderman & Cianciolo, 1984) and antigenic sites inducing enhancing antibodies can be excluded.…”