Localization of a protective epitope on a Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis (VEE) virus peptide that protects mice from both epizootic and enzootic VEE virus challenge and is immunogenic in horses.

In order to define more precisely the protective epitope encoded within the first 25 amino acids (aa) of the E2 glycoprotein of the Trinidad donkey strain of Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis (VEE) virus, we examined the immunogenicity of smaller peptides within the first 19 aa. pep1-9 and pep3-10 elicited virus-reactive antibody, but failed to protect mice from virus challenge. Additionally, pep3-10 was identified by a competitive binding assay using overlapping peptide octamers as the putative binding site of the antipeptide monoclonal antibody (mAb) 1A2B-10. Since the E2 amino-terminal sequence for all VEE subtype viruses is conserved, we tested the protective capacity in mice of passively transferred mAb 1A2B-10 and found it to protect from both epizootic and enzootic VEE virus challenge. Since horses are an important natural host for VEE virus, pep1-19 was used to immunize horses and was found to be immunogenic and to elicit virus-reactive antibody.