Detection of restricted predominant epitopes of Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus capsid proteins expressed in the lambda gt11 system: differential patterns of antibody reactivity among different mouse strains.
Intracerebral injection of mice with Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus results in chronic demyelination in susceptible strains, and serves as a model system for the study of multiple sclerosis. The role of individual epitopes in the disease process remains to be elucidated. Random fragments of DNA from the viral capsid protein genome covering the coding regions from VP1, VP2, and VP3 have been expressed in the lambda gt11 vector system. Fusion proteins from the clones were expressed and probed with antibodies from both resistant and susceptible strains of mice. Each strain displays a distinctive pattern with certain fusion proteins recognized by all of the strains and others recognized uniquely by either the susceptible or the resistant strains.