Synthetic peptides with antigenic specificity for bacterial toxins.

The attachment of a diphtheria toxin-specific synthetic antigenic determinant and a synthetic adjuvant to a synthetic polymeric carrier led to production of a totally synthetic macromolecule which provoked protective antibodies against diphtheria when administered in aqueous solution. When peptides related to the B subunit of cholera toxin were synthesized and attached to tetanus toxoid, antibodies produced against the conjugate reacted in some but not all cases with intact cholera toxin and (especially with peptide CTP 3, residues 50-64) neutralized toxin reactivity, as tested by permeability in rabbit skin, fluid accumulation in ligated small intestinal loops and adenylate cyclase activation. Polymerization of the peptide without any external carrier, or conjugation with the dipalmityl lysine group, had as good an effect in enhancing the immune response as its attachment to tetanus toxoid. Prior exposure to the carrier suppressed the immune response to the epitope attached to it, whereas prior exposure to the synthetic peptide had a good priming effect when the intact toxin was given; when two different peptides were attached to the same carrier, both were expressed. Antisera against peptide CTP 3 were highly cross-reactive with the heat-labile toxin of Escherichia coli and neutralized it to the same extent as cholera toxin, which is not surprising in view of the great homology between the two proteins. A synthetic oligonucleotide coding for CTP 3 has been used to express the peptide in a form suitable for immunization. It led to a priming effect against the intact cholera toxin.