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Discover how PEPperPRINT Peptide Microarray products have been used in different fields of research.

Identification of Zika Virus NS1-Derived Peptides with Potential Applications in Serological Tests

Prudencio, Carlos Roberto; Gomes da Costa, Vivaldo; Rocha, Leticia Barboza; Costa, Hernan Hermes Monteiro; Orts, Diego José Belato; da Silva Santos, Felipe Rocha; Rahal, Paula; Lino, Nikolas Alexander Borsato; da Conceição, Pâmela Jóyce Previdelli; Bittar, Cintia; Machado, Rafael Rahal Guaragna; Durigon, Edison Luiz; Araujo, João Pessoa; Polatto, Juliana Moutinho; da Silva, Miriam Aparecida; de Oliveira, Joyce Araújo; Mitsunari, Thais; Pereira, Lennon Ramos; Andreata-Santos, Robert; de Souza Ferreira, Luís Carlos; Luz, Daniela; Piazza, Roxane Maria Fontes
Viruses.
Feb 2023
Zika virus (ZIKV), a mosquito-borne pathogen, is an emerging arbovirus associated with sporadic symptomatic cases of great medical concern, particularly among pregnant women and newborns affected with neurological disorders. Serological diagnosis of ZIKV infection is still an unmet challenge due to the co-circulation of the dengue virus, which shares extensive sequence conservation of structural proteins leading to the generation of cross-reactive antibodies. In this study, we aimed to obtain tools for the development of improved serological tests for the detection of ZIKV infection. Polyclonal sera (pAb) and a monoclonal antibody (mAb 2F2) against a recombinant form of the ZIKV nonstructural protein 1 (NS1) allowed the identification of linear peptide epitopes of the NS1 protein. Based on these findings, six chemically synthesized peptides were tested both in dot blot and ELISA assays using convalescent sera collected from ZIKV-infected patients. Two of these peptides specifically detected the presence of ZIKV antibodies and proved to be candidates for the detection of ZIKV-infected subjects. The availability of these tools opens perspectives for the development of NS1-based serological tests with enhanced sensitivity regarding other flaviviruses.

Exploring the Immunodominant Epitopes of SARS-CoV-2 Nucleocapsid Protein as Exposure Biomarker

Vashisht, Kapil; Goyal, Bharti; Pasupureddy, Rahul; Na, Byoung-Kuk; Shin, Ho-Joon; Sahu, Dibakar; De, Sajal; Chakraborti, Soumyananda; Pandey, Kailash C

Peptide microarray IgM and IgG screening of pre-SARS-CoV-2 human serum samples from Zimbabwe for reactivity with peptides from all seven human coronaviruses: a cross-sectional study

Ashworth, Jordan; Mathie, Dayna; Scott, Fiona; Mahendran, Yuvaraj; Woolhouse, Mark; Stoevesandt, Oda; Mduluza, Takafira; Mutapi, Francisca
The Lancet Microbe.
Feb 2023

Antibody isotype epitope mapping of SARS‐CoV‐2 Spike RBD protein: targets for COVID‐19 symptomatology and disease control

Contreras, Marinela; Vicente, Joaquín; Cerón, José Joaquín; Subiela, Silvia Martinez; Urra, José Miguel; Rodríguez‐del‐Río, Francisco J.; Ferreras‐Colino, Elisa; Vaz‐Rodrigues, Rita; de Mera, Isabel G. Fernández; Antunes, Sandra; Domingos, Ana; Gortázar, Christian; de la Fuente, José
Eur J Immunol.
Jan 2023

Humoral Immune Response Profile of COVID-19 Reveals Severity and Variant-Specific Epitopes: Lessons from SARS-CoV-2 Peptide Microarray

Acharjee, Arup; Ray, Arka; Salkar, Akanksha; Bihani, Surbhi; Tuckley, Chaitanya; Shastri, Jayanthi; Agarwal, Sachee; Duttagupta, Siddhartha; Srivastava, Sanjeeva
Viruses.
Jan 2023
The amaranthine scale of the COVID-19 pandemic and unpredictable disease severity is of grave concern. Serological diagnostic aids are an excellent choice for clinicians for rapid and easy prognosis of the disease. To this end, we studied the humoral immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection to map immunogenic regions in the SARS-CoV-2 proteome at amino acid resolution using a high-density SARS-CoV-2 proteome peptide microarray. The microarray has 4932 overlapping peptides printed in duplicates spanning the entire SARS-CoV-2 proteome. We found 204 and 676 immunogenic peptides against IgA and IgG, corresponding to 137 and 412 IgA and IgG epitopes, respectively. Of these, 6 and 307 epitopes could discriminate between disease severity. The emergence of variants has added to the complexity of the disease. Using the mutation panel available, we could detect 5 and 10 immunogenic peptides against IgA and IgG with mutations belonging to SAR-CoV-2 variants. The study revealed severity-based epitopes that could be presented as potential prognostic serological markers. Further, the mutant epitope immunogenicity could indicate the putative use of these markers for diagnosing variants responsible for the infection.

Immunodominant antibody responses directed to SARS-CoV-2 hotspot mutation sites and risk of immune escape

Oliveira, Jamille Ramos; Ruiz, Cesar Manuel Remuzgo; Machado, Rafael Rahal Guaragna; Magawa, Jhosiene Yukari; Daher, Isabela Pazotti; Urbanski, Alysson Henrique; Schmitz, Gabriela Justamante Händel; Arcuri, Helen Andrade; Ferreira, Marcelo Alves; Sasahara, Greyce Luri; de Medeiros, Giuliana Xavier; Júnior, Roberto Carlos Vieira Silva; Durigon, Edison Luiz; Boscardin, Silvia Beatriz; Rosa, Daniela Santoro; Schechtman, Deborah; Nakaya, Helder I.; Cunha-Neto, Edecio; Gadermaier, Gabriele; Kalil, Jorge; Coelho, Verônica; Santos, Keity Souza
Front. Immunol..
Jan 2023
Introduction Considering the likely need for the development of novel effective vaccines adapted to emerging relevant CoV-2 variants, the increasing knowledge of epitope recognition profile among convalescents and afterwards vaccinated with identification of immunodominant regions may provide important information. Methods We used an RBD peptide microarray to identify IgG and IgA binding regions in serum of 71 COVID-19 convalescents and 18 vaccinated individuals. Results We found a set of immunodominant RBD antibody epitopes, each recognized by more than 30% of the tested cohort, that differ among the two different groups and are within conserved regions among betacoronavirus. Of those, only one peptide, P44 (S415-429), recognized by 68% of convalescents, presented IgG and IgA antibody reactivity that positively correlated with nAb titers, suggesting that this is a relevant RBD region and a potential target of IgG/IgA neutralizing activity. Discussion This peptide is localized within the area of contact with ACE-2 and harbors the mutation hotspot site K417 present in gamma (K417T), beta (K417N), and omicron (K417N) variants of concern. The epitope profile of vaccinated individuals differed from convalescents, with a more diverse repertoire of immunodominant peptides, recognized by more than 30% of the cohort. Noteworthy, immunodominant regions of recognition by vaccinated coincide with mutation sites at Omicron BA.1, an important variant emerging after massive vaccination. Together, our data show that immune pressure induced by dominant antibody responses may favor hotspot mutation sites and the selection of variants capable of evading humoral response.

Sensing Immune Responses with Customized Peptide Microarrays

Schirwitz, Christopher; Loeffler, Felix F.; Felgenhauer, Thomas; Stadler, Volker; Breitling, Frank; Bischoff, F. Ralf
Biointerphases.
Aug 2012
The intent to solve biological and biomedical questions in high-throughput led to an immense interest in microarray technologies. Nowadays, DNA microarrays are routinely used to screen for oligonucleotide interactions within a large variety of potential interaction partners. To study interactions on the protein level with the same efficiency, protein and peptide microarrays offer similar advantages, but their production is more demanding. A new technology to produce peptide microarrays with a laser printer provides access to affordable and highly complex peptide microarrays. Such a peptide microarray can contain up to 775 peptide spots per cm², whereby the position of each peptide spot and, thus, the amino acid sequence of the corresponding peptide, is exactly known. Compared to other techniques, such as the SPOT synthesis, more features per cm² at lower costs can be synthesized which paves the way for laser printed peptide microarrays to take on roles as efficient and affordable biomedical sensors. Here, we describe the laser printer-based synthesis of peptide microarrays and focus on an application involving the blood sera of tetanus immunized individuals, indicating the potential of peptide arrays to sense immune responses.

Physical Characterization of the “Immunosignaturing Effect”

Stafford, Phillip; Halperin, Rebecca; Legutki, Joseph Bart; Magee, Dewey Mitchell; Galgiani, John; Johnston, Stephen Albert
Mol Cell Proteomics.
Apr 2012
Identifying new, effective biomarkers for diseases is proving to be a challenging problem. We have proposed that antibodies may offer a solution to this problem. The physical features and abundance of antibodies make them ideal biomarkers. Additionally, antibodies are often elicited early in the ontogeny of different chronic and infectious diseases. We previously reported that antibodies from patients with infectious disease and separately those with Alzheimer’s disease display a characteristic and reproducible immunosignature on a microarray of 10,000 random sequence peptides. Here we investigate the physical and chemical parameters underlying how immunosignaturing works. We first show that a variety of monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies raised against different classes of antigens produce distinct profiles on this microarray and the relative affinities are determined. A proposal for how antibodies bind the random sequences is tested. Sera from vaccinated mice and people suffering from a fugal infection are individually assayed to determine the complexity of signals that can be distinguished. Based on these results, we propose that this simple, general and inexpensive system could be optimized to generate a new class of antibody biomarkers for a wide variety of diseases.

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