Antibodies elicited by a biosynthetic peptide related to a major immunogenic area of FMDV A12

ABSTRACT Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) capsid contains 60 copies each of four structural proteins, virus proteins 1-4. Virus protein 1 (VP1) plays an important immunogenic role, being the only VP that is immunogenic as an isolated protein. Even peptides representing a partial amino acid (AA) sequence of VP1 can induce protective immunity in experimental hosts. A 32 AA residue, in a tandem repeat configuration (32dimer), of sero/subtype A-12 Lp ab VP1 (AA 132-168) was highly immunogenic for its homologous subtype and partially protective for FMDV serotype A strain A24 (1). This cross-reactivity was further demonstrable in the ELISA and mouse protection tests. Three different antibody populations were isolated by affinity chromatography (AFC) from the serum of a steer immunized with the 32dimer. Each population seems to recognize a different epitope on the 32dimer peptide since each fraction was defined as unique by its reactivity with different subtypes of FMDV virus in RIA, ELISA, neutralization and...