Identification of type-specific domains within glycoprotein G of herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) recognized by the majority of patients infected with HSV-2, but not by those infected with HSV-1

A combination of phage peptide display library mapping and pepscanning, wit h both murine monoclonal antibodies and a panel of well-characterized human sera, have been used in order to define type-specific epitopes of glycopro tein G of herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) (gG2). Both techniques reveal ed an immunodominant region of 9G2, centred around amino acids 525-587 of t he uncleaved gG2 molecule. A soluble peptide, equivalent to amino acids 551 -570, when used as antigen in an ELISA format was recognized by three out o f five murine MAbs and by 20/26 (77%) Western blot anti-HSV-2-positive huma n sera, but by only 1/63 Western blot anti-HSV-2-negative sera (specificity , 98%), The sensitivity of detection of human anti-HSV-2 antibodies was inc reased to 90% using a peptide derived from this region, presented on a nitr ocellulose membrane. This highly antigenic and type-specific domain of gG2 is located at the junction between the 'unique' region of gG2 and its C-ter minal end, which has approximately 50% identity with gG1. A second antigeni c region of gG2, amino acids 351-427, which lies within the 'unique' part o f gG2, was also identified by both techniques employed in this study and is recognized by a proportion of anti-HSV-2-positive sera. These findings dem onstrate the feasibility of developing a peptide-based type-specific assay for the detection of anti-HSV-2 antibody in human sera based on type-specif ic epitopes of gG2 and have implications for the understanding of the three -dimensional topography of gG2.