Nature of epitopes recognized by anti-norovirus mAbs.

<p>Norovirus VLPs were resolved on SDS-PAGE gels under (A) nonreducing, nondenaturing, or (B) reducing, denaturing conditions and the membranes were probed with anti-norovirus mAbs. All the human antibodies, and the murine mAb 8812, bound to conformational epitopes, while denatured VLP were bound only by mAb 3901. Arrowhead in panel B indicates VP1. (C) Antibodies were binned into competition-binding groups in ELISA as described in Methods. Most of the antibodies seem to compete for the same or spatially proximate epitopes. The asymmetric nature of competition suggests subtle factors such as the angle of approach of the antibodies seem to have an effect on competition.