Screening and identification of dominant B-cell epitopes of human cytomegalovirus UL138 and its clinical applications

Aim: To predict the dominant B-cell epitope of the human cytomegalovirus UL138 gene and to provide a new assay for its latent infection. Methods: Recombinant plasmids were constructed with the predicted dominant epitopes, induced to be expressed and immunized in mice as a way to identify peptide antigenicity, immunogenicity and human serum. Results: Five potentially dominant B-cell epitopes were obtained. The positive rate of detection was found to be significantly higher in neonatal, adult and mouse serum specimens than in human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) (IgG, IgM) and UL138 gene DNA and cDNA assays (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The predicted dominant B-cell epitope is highly sensitive for the detection of human serum HCMV latent infection and can replace the traditional HCMV IgG assay.