Synthetic peptide antigens derived from long-chain alpha-neurotoxins: immunogenicity effect against elapid venoms

Publication date: Available online 21 December 2016
Source:Peptides
Author(s): Guillermo de la Rosa, Nina Pastor, Alejandro Alagón, Gerardo Corzo
Three-finger toxins (3FTXs), especially α-neurotoxins, are the most poorly neutralized elapid snake toxins by current antivenoms. In this work, the conserved structural similarity and motif arrangements of long-chain α-neurotoxins led us to design peptides with consensus sequences. Eight long-chain α-neurotoxins (also known as Type II) were used to generate a consensus sequence from which two peptides were chemically synthesized, LCP1 and LCP2. Rabbit sera raised against them were able to generate partially-neutralizing antibodies, which delayed mice mortality in neutralization assays against Naja haje, Dendrospis polylepis and Ophiophagus hannah venoms.



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