A One-Bead One-Peptide Combinatorial Library Method for B-Cell Epitope Mapping

The one-bead one-peptide combinatorial library method represents a powerful approach to the discovery of binding peptides for various macromolecular targets. It involves the synthesis of millions of peptides on beads such that each bead displays only one peptide entity. The peptide-beads that interact with a specific macromolecular target are then isolated for structure determination. We have applied this method to discovering peptide ligands for several murine monoclonal antibodies: (i) anti-beta-endorphin (continuous epitope), (ii) anti-vmos peptide, (iii) anti-human insulin (discontinuous epitope), and (iv) surface immunoglobulins (μkappa) of two murine B-cell lymphoma cell lines (antigen unknown).