Abstract
Covalent bioconjugation between anionic polyelecrolytes and polypeptide antigens chemically synthesized by solid-phase chemistry, were studied in hydrated reversed micelle systems. The epitops of Foot-and-Mouse disease virus VP1 protein (40–60 and 135–160 residues) were used as polypeptide antigens.
The polypeptide-comprising Biopolymer Systems were obtained by two methods:
1) Inclusion of peptides into electrostatic polyelectrolyte complexes of polycations with proteins, 2) Inclusion of peptides into Cu+2 – induced polyelectrolyte complexes of polyanions with similarly (anionic) charged proteins.
The immunogenetic properties of polymer-peptide conjugates and peptide-comprising Biopolymer Systems were investigated and the specifity of antibodies produced was analyzed. Polymer-Peptide conjugates, as well as peptide-comprising Biopolymer Systems appeared to possess a high peptide specific immunogenecity even without the addition of traditional adjuvants.
It was found that PE-BSA·FMD·Ag conjugates conferred effective immunoprotection against Foot-and-Mouth disease virus.