As shown in Figure 3A, 4D10 specifically reacted with the synthetic peptide PL10, whereas control antibody 4G2 (anti-flavivirus E mAb) did not reacted with PL10. For the sensitivity binding assay, the synthetic peptide PL10 bound the antibody in a concentration-dependent manner. Two control peptides PH10 (3LTTRGGEPHM12) and PM10 (SQNPPHRHQS) were not reactive

(Figure 3B). Figure 3 Properties analysis of synthetic peptide PL10. (A) Specific reactivity of PL10 with antibody 4D10 (anti-DENV1-4 prM mAb). The synthetic peptide PL10 could react with mAb 4D10 but control antibody 4G2 (anti-flavivirus E mAb) could not. (B) The sensitivity binding assay of synthetic peptides PL10 and two control peptides (PH10 and PM10) with mAb 4D10. The synthetic peptide PL10 bound the antibody in a concentration-dependent manner, but two control peptides had no reactivity with 4D10. (C) ELISA reactivities of synthetic peptide PL10 with immunized mice sera. Synthetic selleck inhibitor peptide PL10 was recognized by anti-DENV1-4 mice sera, whereas it was not recognized by anti-JEV mice sera and normal mice sera (NMS). (D) Competitive inhibition of phage clone binding to mAb 4D10 by synthetic peptide PL10. Competitive ELISA was performed using PL10 as competitor of its corresponding phage clones.

The percentage of inhibition is also shown. (E and F) ELISA reactivities click here of synthetic peptide PL10 with serum samples from 20 until DENV2-infected patients (E) and 20 BX-795 cost healthy adults (F). PH10 and PM10 were used as control. Data are expressed as means of at least three independent experiments. The error bars represent standard deviations (SD).

If there is no error bar, it is not that no variations among three independent experiments but that the variations are too small to show in the figure. * P < 0.05 vs PL10 at 0.1 μg. We next evaluated whether the synthetic peptide PL10 could be react with anti-DENV1-4 mice sera. Synthetic peptide PL10 was recognized by anti-DENV1-4 mice sera, whereas it was not recognized by anti-JEV mice sera and normal mice sera (NMS) (Figure 3C). We concluded that synthetic peptide PL10 is a DENV serocomplex cross-reactive epitope-based peptide. To confirm further the phage-displayed peptide was the epitope of antibody 4D10, a peptide competitive-inhibition assay was performed to determine whether the PL10 peptide competed with corresponding phage clones for reactivity with 4D10. The reaction activity of antibody 4D10 with the corresponding phage clones was inhibited markedly by PL10 at 0.1 μg per well with the inhibition percentage from 34% to 69% (Figure 3D). The results showed that the synthetic peptide and corresponding phage clones competed for the same antibody-binding site. Together, these findings suggest that 4D10 recognizes a new epitope on the N-terminal segment of DENV1-4 prM protein. Then, we evaluated the reactivity of synthetic peptide PL10 with DENV2 patient serum samples.