Epitope mapping of dengue-virus-enhancing monoclonal-antibody using phage display peptide library

The Antibody-Dependent Enhancement (ADE) hypothesis has been proposed to explain why more severe manifestations of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever and Dengue Shock Syndrome (DHF/DSS) occur predominantly during secondary infections of Dengue Virus (DV) with different serotypes. However, the epitopes recognized by these enhancing antibodies are unclear. Recently, anti-pre-M monoclonal antibody (mAb 70-21), which recognized all DV serotypes without neutralizing activity, were generated and demonstrated as an enhancing antibody for DV infection. In the present study, the epitope recognized by mAb 70-21 was identified using a phage-displayed random-peptide library. After three rounds of biopanning, ELISA showed that immunopositive phage clones specifically bound to mAb 70-21 but not to serum or purified IgG from naive mice. DNA sequencing of these phage clones showed a consensus sequence, QNNLGPR. Like mAb70-21, these phage-induced antisera also enhanced the DV infection of cells. In addition, indirect fluorescent assays showed phage-induced antisera bound to human rhabdomyosarcoma or Vero cells. Western blotting and immunoprecipitation analysis showed that phage-induced antisera recognized lisp 60 in BHK cell lysate. Moreover, the sera levels of antibodies against the synthetic peptide QNNLGPR correlated with the disease severity of dengue patients. Taken together, these results suggest that antibodies which recognized epitopes shared by pre-M of DV and lisp 60 of host cells may enhance DV infection and be involved in the development of DHF or DSS.