Synthetic peptides as potential vaccines against foot-and-mouth disease

Advances made in our knowledge of the structure of foot-and-mouth disease virus have enabled us to identify a fragment, consisting of 20 amino acids, of one of the four proteins of the particle, which elicits neutralizing antibodies in experimental animals and in cattle and pigs. The fragment has been synthesised chemically by Merrifield's solid phase method and biochemically as part of different fusion proteins. The level of the immune response to the peptide, which depends critically on the way it is presented, affords protection against experimental challenge and holds out promise for its future as a vaccine.