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Updated: Apr 21, 2026

Peptide Scanning-assisted Identification of a Monoclonal Antibody-recognized Linear B-cell Epitope
Published on: March 24, 2017
Functional analysis of dengue virus (DENV) type 2 envelope protein domain 3 type-specific and DENV complex-reactive
Trevor J Pitcher1, Vanessa V Sarathy1, Kiyohiko Matsui1
1Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases, Sealy Center for Vaccine Development, Institute for Human Infections and Immunity, and Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555-0436, USA.
Abstract:
The dengue virus (DENV) envelope protein domain 3 (ED3) is the target of potent virus neutralizing antibodies. The DENV-2 ED3 contains adjacent type-specific and DENV complex-reactive antigenic sites that are composed of a small number of residues that were previously demonstrated to be critical for antibody binding. Site-directed mutagenesis of a DENV-2 16681 infectious clone was used to mutate critical residues in the DENV-2 type-specific (K305A and P384A) and DENV complex-reactive (K310A) antigenic sites. The K305A mutant virus multiplied like the parent virus in mosquito and mammalian cells, as did the P384A mutant virus, which required a compensatory mutation (G330D) for viability. However, the K310A mutant virus could not be recovered. The DENV-2 type-specific critical residue mutations K305A and P384A+G330D reduced the ability of DENV-2 type-specific, but not DENV complex-reactive, mAbs to neutralize virus infectivity and this was directly correlated with mAb binding affinity to the rED3 mutants.

