Encephalitogenic Activity of Peptides from the Smaller Basic Protein of Rat Myelin

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Abstract
Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) can be induced in laboratory animals by injection of the basic protein of myelin in Freund's complete adjuvant. Certain peptides derived from this protein are also encephalitogenic and the potency of these peptides varies depending on the species selected for injection. The tryptophan region of the human and bovine basic proteins is highly encephalitogenic in guinea pigs (1, 2), while for rabbits a potent encephalitogenic determinant is located in the center of the protein (3). Recently the smaller of the two basic proteins from rat myelin (rat S protein) was found to have little encephalitogenic activity in guinea pigs yet was fully active in rats (4). Since the amino acid sequence of the tryptophan region of the rat S protein is altered when compared with the human and bovine proteins (5, 6), Martenson et al. (4) concluded that this region was unlikely to be the determinant responsible for the induction of EAE in rats.

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