Production of Antisera Using Peptide Conjugates
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Since an immunogen requires both an antigenic site and a T-cell receptor binding site, there is a minimum size necessary (1
). Natural immunogens have a molecular weight >5000. Small molecules such as neuropeptides may be able to bind to the surface
of B-cells, but do not stimulate an immune response. Such molecules are known as haptens. A hapten is an incomplete immunogen
but can be made immunogenic by coupling to a suitable carrier molecule. There are a variety of different crosslinking agents
utilized for the coupling of peptides to carrier proteins; examples of each type are covered in this chapter. In the case
of larger neuropeptides, such as calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), it is possible to stimulate an immune response by
presenting the peptide together with a carrier such as polyvinyl-pyrrolidone without the need for conjugation. This method,
described in Section 3.5.
, has proven to be useful for the author for a number of different peptides. Unfortunately, however, the success of this method
compared with the responses to conjugated peptides is largely a matter of trial and error.
