Antigenic features of protein carriers commonly used in immunisation trials

Pieranna Chiarella (1) , Bärbel Edelmann (2) , Vito M. Fazio (1) , Alan M. Sawyer (3) , Ario Marco (4)

1 Laboratory of Molecular Medicine and Biotechnology
2 Institut für Immunologie
3 Monoclonal Antibody Core Facility
4 Cogentech, IFOM-IEO Campus

An aluminium hydroxide adjuvant induced a more elevated and rapid immune responses against short peptides conjugated to the Keyhole Lympet Hemocyanin carrier than immuneasy adjuvant. Furthermore, since carrier proteins may compete with the fused or chemically linked polypeptides in eliciting antigen-specific immune response, we classified the immunogenicity of the most common carrier proteins used in molecular biology for antigen expression and mouse immunisation. The disulfide isomerase protein A gave a carrier with the lowest immunogenicity whilst disulfide isomerase protein C gave the highest immunogenicity and therefore should be avoided as a fusion partner. Using this protein as a model, we identified and located the immunodominant epitopes along its sequence. These results now enable the combination of carrier and immunisation conditions to be optimized.

Mots clés: Affinity tags; Disulfide isomerase protein C; Epitope mapping; Hybridoma technology; Monoclonal antibodies; Peptide immunisation

Pieranna Chiarella, Bärbel Edelmann, Vito M. Fazio, Alan M. Sawyer, Ario Marco. Antigenic features of protein carriers commonly used in immunisation trials. Biotechnology Letters, 2010, 32 (9), pp.1215-1221. ⟨10.1007/s10529-010-0283-z⟩. ⟨hal-00589680⟩