Antibodies with specificities to preselected protein regions evoked by free synthetic peptides representing protein antigenic sites or other surface locations: demonstration with myoglobin.

Previous studies have resulted in the determination of the entire structure of myoglobin. The present work was carried out to investigate the antigenicity of the synthetic antigenic sites and other surface peptides of Mb in their free form (i.e. without coupling to a carrier). Site 1 (peptide 15-22), site 2 (peptide 56-62), site 3 (peptide 94-100), site 4 (peptide 113-120), site 5 (peptide 145-151) and two surface peptides, peptide 1-6 and peptide 121-127, were injected in complete Freund's adjuvant into Balb/c mice. Radioimmune antibody binding studies showed that immunization with each of these peptides, in their free form, resulted in the formation of antibodies that bound specifically to Mb and to the immunizing peptide. The advantage and significance of these findings are discussed.