Protection against measles virus encephalitis by monoclonal antibodies binding to a cystine loop domain of the H protein mimicked by peptides which are not recognized by maternal antibodies Ziegler, Diana and Fournier, Phillippe and Berbers, Guy A. H. and Steuer, Heiko and Wiesmüller, Karl-Heinz and Fleckenstein, Burkhard and Schneider, Francois and Jung, Günther and King, Chwan-Chuen and Muller, Claude P.,, 77, 2479-2489 (1996), doi = https://doi.org/10.1099/0022-1317-77-10-2479, publicationName = Microbiology Society, issn = 0022-1317, abstract= After immunization with measles virus (MV) several monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) were obtained, which reacted with peptides corresponding to the amino acids 361–410 of the haemagglutinin protein (MV-H). Three of these MAbs (BH6, BH21 and BH216) inhibited haemagglutination, neutralized MV in vitro and protected animals from a lethal challenge of rodent-adapted neurotropic MV. These MAbs reacted with the 15-mer peptides H381 and H386 defining their overlapping region 386–395 as a sequential neutralizing and protective epitope, which can be imitated by a short peptide. H381 and H386 share two Cys residues (C386KGKIQALC394ENPEWA) and for optimal MAb binding of peptide (or MV) disulphide bonds were required in addition to a linear C-terminal extension. Other MAbs bound to peptides C- (BH147, BH195) and N-terminally (BH168, BH171) adjacent to the loop but did not neutralize or protect. When sera from measles patients or from women of child-bearing age were tested with the peptides corresponding to this haemagglutinating and neutralizing epitope (HNE), none of the sera recognized the 15-mer peptides of this region, while some reactivity was found to 30-mers homologous to different wild-type mutants. Its lack of recognition by maternal antibodies and its high degree of conservation would make the HNE loop an attractive candidate to include into a subunit vaccine, which could be administered during early childhood, independent of immune status., language=, type=