The Ebola virus (EBOV) can cause severe infections in humans, leading to a fatal outcome in a high percentage of cases. Neutralizing antibodies against the EBOV surface glycoprotein (GP) can prevent infections, demonstrating a straightforward way for an efficient vaccination strategy. Meanwhile, many different anti‐EBOV antibodies have been identified, whereas the exact binding epitopes are often unknown. Here, the analysis of serum samples from an EBOV vaccine trial with the recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus‐Zaire ebolavirus (rVSV‐ZEBOV) and an Ebola virus disease survivor, using high‐density peptide arrays, is presented. In this proof‐of‐principle study, distinct IgG and IgM antibodies binding to different epitopes of EBOV GP is detected: By mapping the whole GP as overlapping peptide fragments, new epitopes and confirmed epitopes from the literature are found. Furthermore, the highly selective binding epitope of a neutralizing monoclonal anti‐EBOV GP antibody could be validated. This shows that peptide arrays can be a valuable tool to study the humoral immune response to vaccines in patients and to support Ebola vaccine development.

中文翻译：

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天然获得的和疫苗诱导的抗埃博拉病毒糖蛋白抗体的抗原表位处于单个氨基酸分辨率。

埃博拉病毒（EBOV）可以导致人类​​严重感染，在很多情况下导致致命后果。抗EBOV表面糖蛋白（GP）的中和抗体可以预防感染，这表明了有效疫苗接种策略的直接方法。同时，已鉴定出许多不同的抗EBOV抗体，而确切的结合表位通常是未知的。本文介绍了使用高密度肽阵列分析重组水疱性口炎病毒-扎伊尔埃博拉病毒（rVSV-ZEBOV）和埃博拉病毒病幸存者的EBOV疫苗试验的血清样品。在这项原理验证研究中，检测到了与EBOV GP不同表位结合的不同IgG和IgM抗体：通过将整个GP映射为重叠的肽片段，从文献中发现了新的表位和证实的表位。此外，可以验证中和性单克隆抗EBOV GP抗体的高选择性结合表位。这表明肽阵列可以成为研究患者对疫苗的体液免疫反应并支持埃博拉疫苗开发的有价值的工具。