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Journal of Virology, August 2003, p. 8633-8639, Vol. 77, No. 16
0022-538X/03/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JVI.77.16.8633-8639.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Karl-Heinz Wiesmüller,2 Tobias Schlapp,3 Bernd Haas,1 Eberhard Pfaff,1 and Armin Saalmüller1*
Institut für Immunologie, Bundesforschungsanstalt für Viruskrankheiten der Tiere, 72076 Tübingen,1 EMC Microcollections, 72070 Tübingen,2 Bayer Animal Health, D-51368 Leverkusen, Germany3
Received 10 February 2003/ Accepted 21 May 2003
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For discrimination between FMDV-infected and -vaccinated animals, several approaches have been undertaken during the last decade. Because all conventional FMDV vaccines consist of purified inactivated viral particles, it should be impossible to detect antibodies against nonstructural proteins in vaccinated animals. Nonstructural proteins should exist only after infection of cells with live virus, and antibodies specific for these nonstructural proteins should only arise after infection.
In 1966, a viral infection-associated antigen was found (2), which was later identified as the nonstructural protein 3D (11). However, quite early it was recognized that antibodies specific for this antigen could also be detected in sera of animals that had been vaccinated several times with an inactivated virus vaccine (1, 3, 14, 16). Therefore, the use of this antigen as a possible marker for the differentiation of vaccinated and infected animals was questioned. In further investigations, other nonstructural proteins were examined for their ability to elicit an antibody response in infected and vaccinated animals (4, 7-10, 15, 19). Antibodies specific for the bacterially expressed 3ABC fusion protein seemed to be especially suitable for the differentiation of vaccinated from infected animals (4, 8, 15, 19). However, this test system has different disadvantages: e.g., difficulty in identifying virus shedding "carriers" (20) and differentiating between often-vaccinated and infected animals (8).
Analysis of results was also impeded by antibodies specific for antigens derived from the expression systems that were used for the synthesis of the proteins: e.g., proteins from Escherichia coli when a bacterial expression system was used (9, 19) or proteins from insects when the baculovirus system was used (9). In these cases, false-positive results occurred.
Also the number of epitopes found on such a long recombinant protein could result in unspecific reactions, because of cross-reactivities with antibodies to other picornaviruses (10).
To overcome these problems, synthetic peptides containing B-cell epitopes of the virus could be used as shown by Shen and coworkers (18). They synthesized synthetic peptides of different lengths from the proteins 2C and 3ABC of FMDV strain A12 for the differentiation of FMDV-vaccinated and -infected animals of different species and identified as a good candidate a 57-amino-acid (aa) peptide that practically contained the amino acid sequences of the three 3B proteins (18). With this peptide, it was possible to differentiate sera of guinea pigs, cattle, and swine infected with different FMDV serotypes from sera of vaccinated animals. Because of the cost and difficulties of synthesizing such a long 57-mer synthetic peptide, it would be desirable to identify shorter peptides to achieve the same goal.
Therefore we used 14- and 15-mer synthetic peptides, which overlapped in 10 aa, for detailed investigations of the bovine humoral immune response against FMDV. The final aim was to identify with synthetic peptides linear viral B-cell epitopes that are recognized specifically by sera derived from FMDV-infected animals and which can be mimicked by small synthetic peptides.
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Peptides. Overlapping peptide amides (14 or 15 aa in length, overlapping each other by 10 aa) were synthesized based on the sequence of FMDV strain O1K (5).
Peptides were prepared by fully automated solid-phase peptide synthesis with 9-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl/tert-butyl (Fmoc/tBu) chemistry and Rink amide 4-methylbenzhydrylamine polystyrene resins. A sevenfold molar excess of single Fmoc-L-amino acids and an optimized diisopropylcarbodiimide/1-hydroxybenzotriazole method were used for the coupling steps. The peptides were cleaved from the resins, and the side chain was deprotected with trifluoroacetic acid-phenol-ethanedithiol-thioanisole-water and precipitated at -20°C by addition of cold diethylether. The precipitates were washed twice by sonication with diethylether and were lyophilized from tert-butyl alcohol. The identity of the peptides was confirmed by electrospray mass spectrometry, and the purity was higher than 80% as determined by high-performance liquid chromatography. The peptides were stored at -70°C in a stock solution of 10 µg/µl in dimethyl sulfoxide.
Peptide ELISA. The peptide enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection of peptide-specific antibodies in the respective sera was performed as follows. The stock solution (0.1 µl per well) of the indicated peptide was diluted in 50 µl of H2O and dried on an ELISA plate (Nunc Immunoplate Maxisorb; Nunc, Wiesbaden, Germany). To reduce nonspecific binding of the sera, the free binding sites on the plates were blocked for 2 h with 3% (wt/vol) bovine serum albumin (BSA) in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). After each incubation step, the plates were washed three times with PBS-Tween (0.1% [vol/vol] Tween 20). Before the substrate was added, five washing steps were performed. Sera as well as all conjugates used in the experiments were diluted in PBS-0.5% BSA. Unless indicated otherwise, all sera were used in a dilution of 1:100. The coated and pretreated plates were then incubated with the respective sera (50 µl per well) for 1 h at 37°C and thereafter with horseradish peroxidase-labeled goat anti-bovine immunoglobulin (H+L) (Southern Biotechnology Associates, Birmingham, Ala. [dilution, 1:2,500]) for an additional hour at 37°C. The existence of peptide-specific antibodies in the sera was detected in a color reaction by adding 50 µl of substrate per well. ortho-Phenylenediamine (OPD) diluted in citrate buffer (4.67 g of citrate, 9.15 g of Na2HPO4, 0.5 g of OPD per liter of H2O) served as a substrate. The enzymatic reaction of the horseradish peroxidase with the substrate was performed in the dark for about 10 min. The reaction was stopped by adding 100 µl of 2 M H2SO4. The intensity of the resulting color was analyzed at 492 nm in an ELISA reader (Titertek, Helsinki, Finland).
A 32-mer peptide (TVYNGECRYNRNAVPNLRGDLQVLAQKVARTL) from the 1D region of FMDV served as a positive peptide control (13), and a 24-mer peptide (N5501; SQRQKKVTFDRQQVQDDHYRDVLR) from the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase region of hepatitis C virus served as a negative control.
A synthetic peptide was identified as bearing a linear FMDV-specific B-cell epitope when the reactivity of the serum, derived from the infected animal in the peptide ELISA, was at least twice the optical density (OD) of the serum before infection. Negative 15-mer peptides from the O1K sequence, identified in previous experiments, served as additional controls. Normally, peptides from the 3D nonstructural protein regions, where no linear B-cell epitopes could be identified, were used as additional negative controls. The following 15-mer 3D-peptides were randomly selected out of the negative peptide fraction and included in the assays: NKDPRLNEGVVLDEV, PEVEAALKLMEKREY, and IGSAVGCNPDVGWQR. The mean value of the reactivity of the respective sera against at least two replicates of each of the three peptides was calculated and used as the denominator for the calculation of the OD index. The standard deviation was determined in all experiments and was <10%.
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Figure 1 (gray columns) shows an example of the reactivity of a serum against the identified peptides. The serum was obtained from a cow 3 weeks postinfection (p.i.). The reactivity of a control serum derived from the same animal prior to infection is indicated by white columns.
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FIG. 1. Identification of FMDV-specific linear B-cell epitopes in cattle. For the identification of FMDV-specific linear B-cell epitopes, the reactivity of a serum derived from an FMDV-infected animal (black columns) was compared with the reactivity of its preimmune serum in a peptide ELISA (white columns) with 442 peptides encoded by the open reading frame of FMDV O1K. The reactivity of 16 positively identified peptides with this animal is demonstrated. P and N represent control peptides as described in Materials and Methods. All tests were performed with at least two replicates, and the standard deviation was <10% in all groups.
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FIG. 2. Localization of the linear FMDV-specific B-cell epitopes. The genome organization of the open reading frame of FMDV is presented together with the viral proteins and their distribution in structural and nonstructural proteins. The location of the synthetic peptides identified as B-cell epitopes in Fig. 1 is shown as gray lines in the respective areas of the viral proteins. The internal numbers of the peptides are indicated.
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Induction of peptide-specific antibodies during an infection. So far, all experiments had been performed with sera from FMDV-infected cattle obtained approximately 3 weeks after infection. In these animals, an antigen-specific immune response with considerable levels of virus-specific antibodies had enough time to develop. If antibodies to viral structures will be involved in the detection of infected animals, several important questions must be answered. When is the onset of the antigen-specific B-cell response? Also, when is the earliest time point for the detection of peptide-specific antibodies? Therefore, an experiment to determine the time kinetics of the peptide-specific antibody response was set up. An animal was infected with FMDV strain O1K, and serum samples were taken 4, 15, and 30 days p.i. Figure 3 shows the reactivity of the sera with the respective peptides. For a better comparison, the data were presented in OD indices, which were calculated by the quotient of the ODs of the respective sera with the presented peptide and the mean OD of three nonspecific peptides (FMDV 3D nonstructural protein region [see Materials and Methods]). As shown in Fig. 3, no peptide-specific antibodies could be detected prior to infection (black columns) and at an early time point after infection (dark gray columns, 4 days p.i.). After 15 days, a weak antibody response was detectable against several peptides (light grey columns) representing the structural (peptide 266) and nonstructural protein regions (peptides 4, 93, 410, and 412). One interesting finding was the high reactivity against peptides derived from proteins 3B1, 3B2, and 3B3 (peptides 433, 434, 436, and 437). The intensity of the reaction against the single peptides had only marginally altered 2 weeks later (white columns).
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FIG. 3. Induction of FMDV peptide-specific antibodies during an FMDV infection. Sera from an FMDV O1K-infected cow (no. 2422) were acquired prior to the infection (black columns), 4 days p.i. (dark gray columns), 15 days p.i. (gray columns), and 30 days p.i. (white columns). All sera were analyzed with the peptide ELISA for antibodies to the respective peptides indicated in Materials and Methods. To standardize the system and to enable a comparison of the respective sera, three control peptides derived from the FMDV nonstructural protein 3D (see Materials and Methods) were included to determine a peptide-independent background staining. All tests were performed with at least two replicates, and the standard deviation was <10%. In correlation with the control peptides, the OD index was calculated as described in the text. The OD index for the control peptides was 1.
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FIG. 4. Comparison of the immunogenic sequences derived from different FMDV strains. The sequences of six synthetic peptides containing linear B-cell epitopes are shown for different FMDV serotypes and subtypes. The sequence of subtype O1K was used as a basis for the other sequences. Sequence homologies are indicated as white fields; changes between the types and subtypes are marked by the respective amino acids. The percentages on the right side summarize the homology of the respective subtypes to O1K.
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Differentiation between FMDV-infected and -vaccinated cattle. To investigate the reactivity of the peptides representing nonstructural protein regions with sera from animals infected with various FMDV serotypes and subtypes, sera from animals infected with different O strains (O1K, O1Lausanne [O1L], and O1Syria [O1S]) were analyzed in a peptide ELISA using peptides 93, 100, 101 derived from the 2C region; peptide 410 from the 3A region; and the two 3B1-3-related peptides, 433 and 437.
As shown in Fig. 5 all sera from the O1-infected animals showed a clear reactivity with peptide 433 from the 3B1 region. In addition, for peptides 437 and 410, reactive antibodies could be found in several animals. The differences in the detection of these antibodies are due to individual differences in the animals, because single animals of all three groups (infected with O1K, O1L, and O1S) were able to elicit antibodies recognizing these peptides. Antibodies reactive with the peptides 100, 101, and 93 could only be detected in O1K- and/or O1L-infected animals.
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FIG. 5. Reactivity of sera from FMDV-infected and -vaccinated animals with synthetic peptides derived from the homologous FMDV strain. Shown is a summary of data from a peptide ELISA performed with sera from FMDV O strain-infected and vaccinated animals. Positive reactions (+) are defined by twofold OD compared with reactivity with control peptides.
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As shown earlier, the amino acid sequences of the peptides used for this assay, are highly conserved within different serotypes. Therefore, in a further experiment, the assay was used to detect peptide-specific antibodies in sera of animals infected with other serotypes of FMDV. These data are summarized in Fig. 6. Sera from animals infected with Asia1 Shamir (Fig. 6a, cattle 460, 10, and 290) showed a strong reactivity with the synthetic peptides from proteins 410, 433, and 437. In contrast, cattle vaccinated with a subtype-specific conventional vaccine (Bayer) did not contain antibodies recognizing the peptides. A similar result was found when sera from A5Bernbeuren-infected animals were used (Fig. 6b). Eleven of 13 sera recognized peptide 437; 13 of 13 sera showed a clear reactivity with peptide 433. Again, for this serotype, no peptide-specific antibodies could be detected in animals revaccinated up to five times.
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FIG. 6. Reactivity of sera from FMDV-infected and -vaccinated animals with synthetic peptides. Shown is a summary of data about reactivity of sera in the peptide-based ELISA. Sera were derived from cattle infected or vaccinated with FMDV serotype Asia1 (a), serotype
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Taken together, these results demonstrate for the first time the possibility of clearly discriminating between FMDV-infected and -vaccinated animals by determining antibodies to two 15-mer synthetic peptides.
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For several years, considerations have been made about how to differentiate FMD-vaccinated and -infected animals. Because all conventional FMDV vaccines consist of purified capsid particles, one theoretical approach might be to detect antibodies against nonstructural proteins in FMDV-infected animals.
In our experiments, several peptides derived from the nonstructural protein region that represent linear B-cell epitopes in FMDV-infected cattle could be identified. These epitopes enable effective discrimination between FMDV-infected and -vaccinated animals.
An interesting role was played by peptides 410 (protein 3A), 433, and 437 (protein 3B), which were recognized by sera of all infected animals, independent of the strain with which the animals had been infected. In all experiments, none of the sera of vaccinated animals contained antibodies directed against these peptides. Therefore, these peptides could be used as the basis for a fast and simple assay to differentiate between infected and vaccinated animals.
As mentioned for recombinant proteins expressed in E. coli or the baculovirus system (9, 19), no reactivity of noninfected or vaccinated animals could be observed. Furthermore, animals vaccinated five times did not show any reactivity to the peptides.
Our results confirm data for a peptide-based ELISA described by Shen et al. in 1999 (18). However, in contrast to the 57-aa peptide they used for the detection of infection-dependent antibodies, our 15- or 14-mer peptides are easier to synthesize and are much cheaper for the production of commercially available diagnostic systems. Further experiments with shorter peptides based on the sequences of the respective peptides and the definition of a shorter core motif are in progress. Eventually the 5-aa peptide QKPLK, representing the common sequence found in peptides 433, 434, 436, 437, and 438, will be enough for effective recognition and differentiation between infected and conventionally vaccinated cattle.
In the comparison between 15- and 57-aa peptides, one should keep in mind that the ELISA with the 57-aa peptide was able to differentiate sera of guinea pigs, cattle, and swine infected with different FMDV serotypes from sera of vaccinated animals. So far, the 15-mer approach using 3B peptides 433 and 437 has been tested only with cattle. However, further experiments will elucidate the reactivity of sera from other species and will surely give results about their FMDV-specific B-cell epitopes.
Another important point is the influence of several vaccinations on the production of antibodies to the nonstructural protein peptides. The sera of the vaccinated animals we used were derived from animals that were maximally vaccinated five times (FMDV strain A5Bernbeuren). Whether sera of animals that were vaccinated considerably more often contain antibodies to the 15-mer peptides is not clear, but the chance seems to be very low.
Another important question is what happens when a vaccinated animal is infected? In preliminary experiments based on only five animals, we showed with the peptide ELISA that these animals, which had been vaccinated two to five times prior to infection, had antibodies to the 3B peptides 3 weeks after challenge infection. That means that "carrier" animals, which can be generated by vaccination and consecutive infection, might be detected in the peptide-based ELISA. These animals without FMDV symptoms are a continuous threat for nonvaccinated animal populations. A sensitive method for detection of these animals is highly important for FMDV diagnosis, and whether these animals carry the virus should be determined early on. Detailed analyses of carrier animals and their antibody repertoire will be the subjects of further studies.
When evaluating the peptide ELISA, additional individual differences in the reactivity of the peptide-specific antibodies that could be detected in the serum became obvious. For only one animal were antibodies to all peptides used in the experiments (peptides 93, 100, 101, 410, 433, and 437) detected. This might depend on a different antibody titer against single peptides in the sera of individual animals. This problem could be overcome with an increase in the sensitivity of the peptide ELISA: e.g., by using biotinylated peptides coupled to streptavidin plates (17).
Sensitivity might also play a role when a peptide-based ELISA replaces the conventional FMDV detection systems. In contrast to the competition ELISA used in FMDV diagnostic laboratories (6), an ELISA based on peptides from the nonstructural proteins could identify only infected animals. No information would be available about former vaccinations. However, this problem can be solved by the use of synthetic peptides derived from the structural protein region (e.g., with the 32-mer peptide P from protein 1D or shorter peptides from this sequence). With this modification, the new peptide-based detection system for FMDV-specific antibodies would have clear advantages over the competition ELISA, such as the fact that the test itself does not depend on the use of previously inactivated FMDV and could be performed outside of special high-security containment.
Present address: Miltenyi Biotec, 51429 Bergisch Gladbach, Germany. ![]()
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