A hexamer peptide ligand that binds selectively to staphylococcal enterotoxin B: isolation from a solid phase combinatorial library.

By screening a solid-phase combinatorial peptide library, a short peptide ligand, YYWLHH, has been discovered that binds with high affinity and selectivity to staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB), but only weakly to other SEs that share sequence and structural homology with SEB. Using column affinity chromatography with an immobilized YYWLHH stationary phase, it was possible to separate SEB quantitatively from Staphylococcus aureus fermentation broth, a complex mixture of proteins, carbohydrates and other biomolecules. The immobilized peptide was also used to purify native SEB from a mixture containing denatured and hydrolyzed SEB, and showed little cross-reactivity with other SEs. To our knowledge this is the first report of a highly specific short peptide ligand for SEB. Such a ligand is a potential candidate to replace antibodies for detection, removal and purification strategies for SEB.