ウイルス感染での合成ペプチドの応用

抄録

The serological application of synthetic peptides in viral infection can be grouped into two categories;antigenic and immunogenic. In the first category, synthetic peptide antigens are used to bind site-specific antibodies raised against the region corresponding to peptide amino acids sequence of the native protein. This site-directed specificity of peptide antigens can be basis for sensitive and specific immunoassay for diagnosis purposes. EIA using synthetic peptides as antigens have been used successfully for diagnosis of viral infection and discrimination between similar viruses. By using site-directed specificity it is also possible to obtain site-specific antibodies from human plasma by affinity column coupled with antigenic synthetic peptides as ligands These antibodies can be used for analysis of functional domains of the native protein which can neutralize viral infection. In the second category, synthetic peptide immunogens are used to elicite antibodies recognizing the native protein from which the peptide was derived. Antipeptide antibodies have been used for detection, chracterization, localization and purification of proteins. This chapter describes the characteristics of antigenic regions on HTLV- I structural proteins, and the serological application of the antigenic peptides in viral infection.