Natural mouse and human antibodies bind to a peptide derived from a germline VH chain. Evidence for evolutionary conserved self-binding locus.

Murine antibodies derived from the V1 S107/T15 germline structure combined with Vk 22 L chains express the property of self-binding. Previous studies have shown that the self-binding is mediated by the Fab fragment involving structures of the hapten binding site. The molecular locus of self-binding has also been identified by showing that a peptide derived from the CDR2/FR3 region of the V1 S107 H chain inhibits self-binding. We have addressed the question of whether self-binding antibodies interact with peptides that inhibit self-binding. We found that labeled TEPC15 (T15) binds to immobilized VH (50-73) peptide; the peptide binding is specific because different CDR peptides and other unrelated peptides do not inhibit this binding. Furthermore, the hapten phosphorylcholine is a potent inhibitor for the T15-peptide binding. We have demonstrated the presence of naturally occurring antibodies that bind to the T15H(50-73) peptide in the sera of different strains of mice and also in humans, indicating that the CDR2/FR3 sequence of T15 is a conserved Id determining region. We have isolated peptide-specific antibodies from pooled normal human Ig preparations. Human anti-peptide antibodies have self-binding properties similar to their murine counterparts. This interspecies conserved peptide binding of antibodies that are self-binding indicates the existence of an evolutionarily important and biologically active site.