Identification of Conserved Epitopes of the Hemagglutinin HA Protein on Influenza A virus
Influenza A pandemic is seriously harmful to human health.There are many types of influenza virus and it is easy to mutate.The existing vaccines cannot induce cross-protection between different subtypes,which makes prevention difficult.Frequent mutation of influenza A virus hemagglutinin(HA)antigen is the main cause of influenza pandemic.Therefore,the study of B cell epitope on HA is very important in the prevention and control of influenza virus.In this study,monoclonal antibody(mAb)was pre-pared by hybridoma fusion and screening technique using 2009 H1N1 vaccine as immunogen.The reactivity of mAbs with 5 different subtypes of influenza viruses(H1N1 2009,H3N2,avian influenza H5N1 and H7N9)was detected by indirect ELISA.The amino acid sequences of the antigens recognized by the mAbs were found in GenBank database,and the peptides were designed and synthe-sized by DNAMAN software according to the common amino acid sequences of these antigens.Then different peptides were blocked with influenza mAbs to determine the conserved epitopes recognized by these mAbs,and the interrelationship between the mAbs were analyzed.The distribution of conserved epitopes in HA crystal structure was analyzed by Pymol and PDB viewer software.4 mAbs were obtained to recognize the conserved epitope of HA.Using these 4 mAbs as research tools,STQNAID(409~415 aa)in the stem region of HA was finally identified as the epitope of the conserved region of influenza A virus.ELISA blocking assay showed that 4 antibodies could bind to at least two kinds of epitopes on HA,indicating that there are at least two kinds of epitopes in influenza virus HA.Fine mapping of conserved epitopes of influenza A virus is the focus of research,which provides theoretical and experimental basis for developing universal influenza A vaccine.It also provides a new method for the epitope prediction of other pathogenic micro-organisms.
Influenza A virusHAMonoclonal antibodyELISA blocking assayComputer predictionLocalizationConserved epitope