Skip to main content
PMC home page
The Journal of Experimental Medicine logoLink to The Journal of Experimental Medicine
. 1964 Jun 1;119(6):1005–1015. doi: 10.1084/jem.119.6.1005

ANTIGENICITY OF POLYPEPTIDES (POLY ALPHA AMINO ACIDS)

XII. IMMUNOLOGICAL STUDIES WITH A NEW GROUP OF SYNTHETIC COPOLYMERS

Paul H Maurer 1, Bernard F Gerulat 1, Paul Pinchuck 1
PMCID: PMC2137755  PMID: 14176288

Abstract

A new group of synthetic random polymers of α-L-amino acids has been studied for immunogenicity. With the glutamic acid and alanine copolymers, those consisting of almost equimolar amounts of the two (G60A40 and G40A60) were effective antigens in rabbits whereas those with higher glutamic acid contents (G75A25, G90A10) were poor antigens. The substitution of alanine by valine or leucine (G75V25 and G80Leu20) produced copolymers which were poor antigens in rabbits but effective in guinea pigs. L70A30, although capable of "non-specifically" precipitating serum proteins, was shown not to be antigenic in either rabbits or guinea pigs. The introduction of alanine into glutamic acid and lysine polymers (GLA series) enhanced the immunogenicity of the terpolymers, i.e., GLA30 > GLA20 > GLA10 > GL. The mechanism by which this may be accomplished is discussed as possibly being related to the reduction of the interactions between glutamyl and lysyl residues which allows the carboxyl groups to act as strong immunogenic determinants.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (607.2 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. BENACERRAF B., OJEDA A., MAURER P. H. STUDIES ON ARTIFICIAL ANTIGENS. II. THE ANTIGENICITY IN GUINEA PIGS OF ARSANILIC ACID CONJUGATES OF COPOLYMERS OF D- OR L-ALPHA-AMINO ACIDS. J Exp Med. 1963 Dec 1;118:945–952. doi: 10.1084/jem.118.6.945. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. BUCHANAN-DAVIDSON D. J., STAHMANN M. A., LAPRESLE C., GRABAR P. Immunochemistry of synthetic polypeptides and polypeptidyl proteins. III. Antigencity of the synthetic polypeptides. J Immunol. 1959 Nov;83:552–560. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. FISHMAN M., ADLER F. L. Antibody formation initiated in vitro. II. Antibody synthesis in x-irradiated recipients of diffusion chambers containing nucleic acid derived from macrophages incubated with antigen. J Exp Med. 1963 Apr 1;117:595–602. doi: 10.1084/jem.117.4.595. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. FISHMAN M. Antibody formation in vitro. J Exp Med. 1961 Dec 1;114:837–856. doi: 10.1084/jem.114.6.837. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. GARVEY J. S., CAMPBELL D. H. The retention of S35-labelled bovine serum albumin in normal and immunized rabbit liver tissue. J Exp Med. 1957 Apr 1;105(4):361–372. doi: 10.1084/jem.105.4.361. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. GILL T. J., 3rd, MATTHEWS L. S. Studies on synthetic polypeptide antigens. IX. The antigenicity of a new group of linear synthetic polypeptides. J Biol Chem. 1963 Apr;238:1373–1379. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. KANTOR F. S., OJEDA A., BENCARERRAF B. Studies on artifical antigens. I. Antigenicity of DNP-polylysine and DNP copolymer of lysine and glutamic acid in guinea pigs. J Exp Med. 1963 Jan 1;117:55–69. doi: 10.1084/jem.117.1.55. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. MAURER P. H. (ANTIGENICITY OF POLYPEPTIDES (POLY-ALPHA-AMINO ACIDS). IV. STUDIES IN GUINEA PIGS. J Immunol. 1963 Apr;90:493–505. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. MAURER P. H. Antigenicity of polypeptides (poly alpha amino acids). X. Studies with polymers of D amino acids. Proc Soc Exp Biol Med. 1963 Jul;113:553–557. doi: 10.3181/00379727-113-28423. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. MAURER P. H. Antigenicity of polypeptides (poly-alpha-amino acids). II. J Immunol. 1962 Mar;88:330–338. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. MAURER P. H. Attempts to produce antibodies to a preparation of polyglutamic acid. Proc Soc Exp Biol Med. 1957 Nov;96(2):394–396. doi: 10.3181/00379727-96-23488. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. MAURER P. H., CASHMAN T. ANTIGENICITY OF POLYPEPTIDES (POLY-ALPHA-AMINO ACIDS). VIII. STUDIES IN GUINEA PIGS. J Immunol. 1963 Mar;90:393–398. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. MAURER P. H., GERULAT B. F., PINCHUCK P. ANTIGENICITY OF POLYPEPTIDES (POLY-ALPHA-AMINO ACIDS). V. STUDIES IN RABBITS. J Immunol. 1963 Mar;90:381–387. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. MAURER P. H., GERULAT B. F., PINCHUCK P. ANTIGENICITY OF POLYPEPTIDES (POLY-ALPHA-AMINO ACIDS). VI. STUDIES IN RABBITS. J Immunol. 1963 Mar;90:388–392. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. MAURER P. H., GERULAT B. F., PINCHUCK P. ANTIGENICITY OF POLYPEPTIDES (POLY-ALPHA-AMINO ACIDS). XI. QUANTITATIVE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG POLYMERS AND RABBIT ANTISERA. J Biol Chem. 1964 Mar;239:922–929. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. OVARY Z. Immediate reactions in the skin of experimental animals provoked by antibody-antigen interaction. Prog Allergy. 1958;5:459–508. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. PREER J. R., Jr A quantitative study of a technique of double diffusion in agar. J Immunol. 1956 Jul;77(1):52–60. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. RITTENBERG M. B., NELSON E. L. Macrophages, nucleic acids, and the induction of antibody formation. A review. Am Nat. 1960 Sep-Oct;94:321–342. doi: 10.1086/282136. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The Journal of Experimental Medicine are provided here courtesy of The Rockefeller University Press

RESOURCES