[Synthesis and antigenic activity of peptides of the nucleocapsid protein of the hepatitis delta virus].

Hepatitis delta virus (HDV), a recently discovered infectious agent, participates in severe, often lethal forms of acute and chronic hepatitis and liver cirrhosis. Based on theoretical analysis of secondary structure, hydrophilicity and acrophilicity data, several regions of HDV antigen, presumably containing B-epitopes, have been revealed and the corresponding peptides have been synthesized by the solid phase method. All the peptides obtained reacted with the respective antipeptide rabbit sera. The peptides and their conjugates with BSA or KLH were used for ELISA with individual and pooled anti-HD-positive sera from patients with chronic delta hepatitis. The high antigenicity of the peptide 65-80 shows that one of the antigenically active regions of HDAg is situated between these amino acid residues and that the peptide may be used for detection of anti-HD antibodies in patients blood sera.