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Inconsistency of mapped epitope for mAb 12D1

Posted by arminlahm on 06 May 2011 at 09:51 GMT

The western blot data presented in Fig 9 clearly show that the 12D1 epitope is upstream position 30 of HA2 (left part of Fig 9) and downstream of position 76 in HA2 (right part of Fig 9), i.e. within residues 30 to 76 of HA2. I therefore don't understand the interpretation of the authors that assign HA2 residues 76-106 as the 12D1 epitope given the much stronger reactivity in the region HA2 30 to 60 (the region of the known stem epitope).

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RE: Inconsistency of mapped epitope for mAb 12D1

ttwmssm replied to arminlahm on 20 May 2011 at 16:50 GMT

In contrast to the statement by Arminlahm, we show in Figure 9 that mAb 12D1 binds to two fusion proteins which start either at amino acid 76 or 91 of the HA2 and only include amino acids C-terminal to those positions (upstream). We do not exclude the possibility that amino acids N-terminal to (downstream of) amino acid position 76 are involved in 12D1 binding or – more likely- in the stabilization of the long alpha helix of the hemagglutinin truncation proteins. In summary, we believe that our interpretation of the data as originally stated in the paper is correct.

Taia Wang
Peter Palese

No competing interests declared.