Synthetic Peptides as a Strategy for the Development of Diagnostic Systems to Face New Virus Pandemics

The use of immunological techniques based on the detection of antibodies continues to be relevant in the diagnosis of infectious diseases, since beyond demonstrating exposure to pathogens, it can also be an indicator of the degree of immune protection. Frequently, the antigens used are recombinants obtained by molecular biology. As an alternative, peptides that contain reactive epitopes can be chemically synthesized. Hence, its selection requires the analysis of the crystal structure when it is available, as well as immunoinformatics based on prediction algorithms of the most antigenic, constant, and exclusive sequences with the greatest diagnostic potential. Using this approach, we select a limited number of sequences to be synthesized on paper and evaluated by Pepscan in the presence of positive sera. Those more reactive sequences are synthesized in solid phase by the Fmoc strategy and evaluated by immunoenzymatic techniques. We have succeeded in obtaining peptides of different infectious agents such as viruses, bacteria, and parasites. The low cost, speed of their synthesis, purification, ease of scaling-up, and thermostability are other comparative advantages concerning recombinant antigens, which makes synthetic peptides attractive as a strategy for the development of new diagnostic systems. Based on the advantages of synthetic peptides as a source of antigens, they would be of great value to be used for the immunodiagnosis of future virus pandemics.