EPITOPE ANALYSIS OF STAPHYLOCOCCAL-ENTEROTOXIN-A USING DIFFERENT SYNTHETIC PEPTIDES

The antigenic determinants (or epitopes) of staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA) were analyzed using synthetic peptides and rabbit antibodies to their corresponding peptides. Of 12 different synthetic peptides te sted, peptides A-1 (corresponding to the amino acid sequence 1-20), A- 5 (81-100), and A-8 (141-160) were reactive with anti-SEA antibodies. However, all synthetic peptides were found to elicit antibodies reacti ve with native SEA molecule. These findings suggest that native SEA mo lecule contains at least 3 different antigenic determinants.