ISOLATED AND PURIFIED PEPTIDE, RECOMBINANT FUSION PROTEIN, VECTOR, HOST CELL, METHOD FOR GENERATING PEPTIDE, VACCINE COMPOSITION, METHOD FOR DETERMINING THE PRESENCE OR ABSENCE OF HEV ANTIBODIES, DIAGNOSTIC TEST KIT, AND DIAGNOSTIC REAGENT.
"New hev antigenic peptide and methods". The present invention relates to a highly immunoreactive viral peptide, pe2, which is derived from the carboxy terminal regions of the hepatitis virus genome (hev) orf2 region. A unique feature of the new pe2 peptide is that it has conformational antigenic determinants that are only exposed when the peptide monomer associates with one another through non-covalent interactions to naturally form homodimers. The new pe2 peptide has been proven to be highly reactive with sera from patients with past and current hev infection, suggesting that the homodimer may mimic certain structural characteristics of the hev capsid protein. In addition, the antigenic activity of the pe2 peptide is strictly conformational in nature and thus exhibits immunochemical reactivity only when the peptide exists in dimeric form. consequently, antigenic activity is lost upon dissociation of dimers, but activity is restored when monomers reassociate to form dimers. In addition, the diagnostic methods useful in detecting and diagnosing hev infection, and the use of an effective vaccine composition in preventing hepatitis virus infection and in which the new pe2 peptide is used, are also described."novo peptídeo antigênico hev e métodos". a presente invenção se refere a um peptídio viral altamente imunoreativo, pe2, o qual é derivado das regiões de extremidade carboxi-terminal da região orf2 do genoma (hev) de vírus da hepatite e. uma única característica do novo peptídeo pe2 é que ele possui determinantes antigênicos conformacionais que somente são expostos quando o monomero do peptideo se associa com um outro através de interações não covalentes para formar naturalmente homodímeros. provou-se que o novo peptideo pe2 é altamente reativo com soros de pacientes com infecção passada e atual com hev, o que sugere que o homodímero pode imitar certas características estruturais da proteína capsideo de hev. além disso, a atividade antigênica do peptídeo pe2 é estr
