Fig 3.

Reaction of sera from homeless people and the B. quintana-infected patient with HbpD synthetic peptides. (A) Schematic diagram of the HbpD synthetic peptides. HbpD1, HbpD2, and HbpD3 were designed to cover overlapping regions of HbpD/101–200 and HbpD/151–250. The positions and numbers of amino acids of the three peptides are indicated on the right. (B) HbpD1 (white bars), HbpD2 (black bars), and HbpD3 (gray bars) were applied as a coating to plates, and the avidities of four sera from homeless people and control serum (NC) were measured by ELISA. Data are the means of three independent experiments. (C) Sera from 24 homeless people and control serum were examined by ELISA with an HbpD3-coated plate. Data are the means of three independent experiments. (D) Serum from an endocarditis patient infected with B. quintana was measured by ELISA with HbpD1 (white bars), HbpD2 (black bars), and HbpD3 (gray bars). Sera were prepared at indicated time points during the course of the infection. IgG titers for B. quintana measured by IFA are shown. Data are the means of three independent experiments.