Universal antibodies to human interferon-alpha subtypes--the production of antipeptide antibodies to conserved regions of interferon-alpha.

Antibodies to three conserved regions of all human interferon (IFN)-alpha 1 subtypes were raised by immunizing rabbits with short synthetic peptides coupled to a carrier. These peptides correspond to amino acid residues 29-36, 31-36, 126-131, 139-151, and 142-151 of the consensus sequence of IFN-alpha 1. The antibodies were tested for reactivity with IFN-alpha 1, -alpha 2a, -alpha 2b, -alpha 4a, and -alpha 14 and IFN-beta. Most antipeptide antibodies react only weakly with IFN-alpha subtypes; only the antibodies raised against the peptide corresponding to residues 142-151 conjugated to keyhole limpet hemocyanin using glutaraldehyde react appreciably with all IFN-alpha subtypes tested. These antipeptide antibodies are potentially universal antibodies to the human IFN-alpha 1 subtypes, since they exhibit similar binding affinity to all the IFN-alpha subtypes tested and do not react with IFN-beta.