Sequence analysis of echoviruses in a major antigenic region eliciting enteroviral cross-reactive antibodies

The amino acid sequence of an antigenic region known to elicit cross-reactive enteroviral IgG antibodies in VP1 is known for poliovirus and cox-sackievirus A and B. However, no corresponding data has been available for prevalent echovirus serotypes with great clinical impact. Such information was obtained by amplification of this region of the echovirus genome by PCR using biotinylated primers. The amplicon was subjected to solid phase sequencing using the dideoxy chain-termination method. Translated amino acid sequences for residues 26-55 of VP1 of the echoviruses revealed that the known cross-reactive region is highly conserved also in the echovirus serotypes.