Patent Evaluation: A lipoprotein assay for prediction of hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis

Abstract

Novelty: Epitopes of the human apoprotein B-100 of low density lipoprotein (LDL) in plasma have been mapped. Fusion proteins containing sequences corresponding to the pan epitope region immunologically mimic the apoprotein B-100 and may be used for the development of assay systems for the determination of LDL and HDL in body fluids.

Biology: Peptide sequences from the human apoprotein B-100 protein which were capable of binding the anti-apo B 100 antibody MB47 were identified. Synthetic peptides from this region were found to exhibit no binding affinity, indicating that the epitope was a product of secondary or tertiary structure. The required region was a sequence of 80-160 amino acid residues corresponding to a nucleotide sequence from 10290 to 10560. The production of fusion proteins containing this sequence and the use of such proteins and antibodies raised against them for the quantitative determination of plasma LDL or HDL is claimed.