Competitive ELISA for the identification of 35-55 myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein immunodominant epitope conjugated with mannan.

Analogues of immunodominant myelin peptides involved in multiple sclerosis (MS; the most common autoimmune disease) have been extensively used to modify the immune response over the progress of the disease. The immunodominant 35-55 epitope of myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG 35-55 ) is an autoantigen appearing in MS and stimulates the encephalitogenic T cells, while mannan polysaccharide (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is a carrier towards the mannose receptor of dendritic cells and macrophages. The conjugate of mannan-MOG 35-55 has been extensively studied for the inhibition of chronic experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE; animal model of MS) by inducing antigen-specific immune tolerance against the clinical symptoms of EAE in mice. Moreover, it presents a promising approach for the immunotherapy of MS under clinical investigation. In this study, a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed to detect the MOG 35-55 peptide that is conjugated to mannan. Intra- and inter-day assay experiments proved that the proposed ELISA methodology is accurate and reliable and could be used on the following applications: (i) to identify the peptide (antigen) while it is conjugated to mannan and (ii) to adequately address the alterations that the MOG 35-55 peptide may undergo when is bound to mannan during production and stability studies.