Moderate cross-reactivity to restimulated alanine altered variants of SYIPSAEKI. The 6–8 week old BALB/c mice were immunized once with KI peptide alone (25 µg KI per mouse), PSNPs plus KI or KI conjugated to PSNPs (PSNPs + KI, PSNPs-KI, respectively, 25 µg per mouse KI and 1% solids PSNPs for both groups), or Montanide plus KI (25 µg KI per mouse in 70%/30% v/v Montanide/Phosphate buffered saline (PBS)). Two weeks after the last immunization, splenocytes from immunized mice were harvested and restimulated with altered peptides in an in vitro ELISpot assay for IFN-γ. Data shown as mean +/- SD of spot forming units (SFU)/million cells per assay triplicates (pooled cells from 3–4 mice per group). * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001, **** p < 0.0001.