Tobacco mosaic virus peptide sequences

An alternative approach to the production of subunit vaccines entails their direct chemical synthesis. Peptides identical in sequence to short stretches of pathogen-derived polypeptide antigens can be easily and economically synthesized. The feasibility of this approach was first verified in the 1960s, when a hexapeptide purified from the enzymatic digest of tobacco mosaic virus was found to confer limited immunological protection against subsequent administration of the intact virus. (The hexapeptide hapten was initially coupled to bovine serum albumin, used as a carrier to ensure an immunological response.)... 

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