1. ¹Institute of Immunology, PLA, The Third Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China.
2. ²Medical Center, General Hospital of Weifang, Weifang 26100, China.

Correspondence: Yu Zhang WU, Prof and Director of Institute of Immunology, PLA, The Third Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China, Tel: 23-6875268, Fax: 23-68752789

Received 2 January 2001; Revised 18 May 2001; Accepted 17 June 2001.

Abstract

TO acquire the phage-displayed mimotopes which mimic the specificity of hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg), a random peptide library expressing linear peptide with 12 amino acids in length were used to screen with the serum from a hepatitis B virus infected patient in the recovery phase. After 3 rounds of biopanning, the positive phages were confirmed by competitive ELISA using HBsAg/P33. Two phagotopes were identified and one of them was confirmed as mimotope by competition experiment. Based on the mimotpe, a multiple antigenic peptide with four branches was synthesized by solid phase peptide synthesis. The antiginicity and specificity of the synthesized antigen was tested in BALB/c mice compared with the native epitope-based antigen. The results showed that the mimotope-based antigen could evoke higher titer of antibodies with the same specificity of the epitope-based antigen. Those findings indicate mimotopes can be used in antigen and vaccine design.