SYNTHESIS AND APPLICATION OF HEPATITIS-E VIRUS PEPTIDES TO DIAGNOSIS

Based on computer analysis of hydrophobicity and prediction of seconda ry structures for the full-length putative proteins encoded by open re ading frame-1 (ORF-1), ORF-2 and ORF-3 of hepatitis E virus (HEV), we selected antigenic regions with hydrophilicity, beta-turn, and beta-sh eet, and synthesized 7 peptides of possible epitope-containing regions of the polypeptide encoded by all 3 ORFs of HEV genomic RNA by Merrif ield's method of solid-phase synthesis. The synthetic peptides were sc reened and identified by solid-phase enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Three of the peptides (EH(174) from ORF-1, EH(286) from ORF- 2 and EH(362) from ORF-3) showed antigenic activity and possible appli cation for the development of anti-HEV test kits (the peptide-based EL ISA). The laboratory experiments and clinical trials showed that the k its, using a set of 3 synthetic HEV peptides as coating antigens, were of high specificity and exhibited good reproducibility. The small-sca le seroepidemiological survey indicated high seroprevalence (14.3%) of anti-HEV in Tibetan populations. Additionally, the results also demon strated good agreement with clinical findings, suggesting that the tes t kits will be of major use for immunodiagnosis and seroepidemiologica l surveys of HEV infection.