Inhibition of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis by carrier administered prior to challenge with encephalitogenic peptide-carrier conjugate.

Guinea pigs can be rendered unresponsive to experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) challenge by prior injections of myelin basic protein (BP) or peptides derived from BP. The synthesized tryptophan-containing peptide (TrpP, corresponding to residues 114-122) which is the primary encephalitogenic sequence in BP (for guinea pigs) had been conjugated to the non-central nervous system protein bovine serum albumin (BSA) and used for EAE challenge. It has been shown in this study that prechallenge treatment with the BSA carrier alone can significantly inhibit the induction of EAE by TrpP-BSA conjugate. That carrier treatment is immunologically specific was determined when prior treatment with cytochrome c did not protect animals from EAE challenge with TrpP conjugated to BSA. In addition, in disease induced with BP or TrpP, and while TrpP did protect guinea pigs challenged with TrpP, it did not protect those challenged with BP. This last finding raises the possibility of a second encephalitogenic sequence in BP or an important role for the carrier in the TrpP conjugate.