| abstract |
In a first aspect, the invention features a purified polypeptide having an epitope of an antigenic polypeptide of FIV. The polypeptide may be glycosylated or unglycosylated. By antigenic polypeptide is meant a polypeptide which is able to raise (with the aid of an adjuvant if necessary) an antibody response in cats. The polypeptide may be a polypeptide fragment of at least 5 amino acids, or a polypeptide naturally occurring in FIV particles. The fragment may be obtained from a naturally-occurring polypeptide, for example, by enzymatic digestion of a naturally occurring polypeptide, or may be produced by isolation or synthesis of a gene encoding a desired polypeptide and expression of that polypeptide within a desired expression system, for example, a bacterial, yeast, or mammalian expression system. |