Antibody Production with synthetic Multiple Antigenic Peptides (MAPs)

[Anne deVaux]

We are working on a project to raise antibodies to synthetic peptides using MAPs.  We have synthesized a 15 residue peptide on a 4-branch MAP construct.  This was used to immunize Balb/c mice and we obtained no antigenic response.  We think this may be due to a lack of a T-cell helper epitope.  Does anyone know of a universal T-cell epitope sequence compatible with Balb/c mice?  Or, have another explaination for why we obtained no response?

Anne deVaux & Jacqueline McCandless
devauxae at ccmail.apldbio.com