Probing the idiotype/anti-idiotype antibody interaction with a set of synthetic peptide homologues.

Anti-idiotypic (anti-Id) antibodies were raised against two murine monoclonal antibodies (mAb 1/1 and mAb 2/1) which recognise two distinct and well-characterised epitopes on a 24-residue synthetic peptide representing part of the haemagglutinin (HA) of influenza virus. A monoclonal anti-Id antibody, specific for mAb 2/1, could bind to mAb 2/1 when the paratope of the latter was occupied with peptide, indicating that this anti-Id antibody is directed to a framework idiotope. In contrast, an anti-Id mAb derived from mAb 1/1-immunised mice was inhibited in its binding to Id by the parent peptide and also by the heptapeptide NVPEKQT which constitutes the epitope recognised by mAb 1/1. The small size of this synthetic peptide eliminates the possibility of significant steric inhibition in the system, and establishes that this mAb is a true paratope-directed anti-Id antibody. The interaction of this anti-Id mAb with the paratope of mAb 1/1 in the presence of a set of peptide homologues of the epitope was also examined. A peptide as short as 5 residues, which contains two of the three irreplaceable residues of the epitope, could inhibit binding between the two mAbs.