Antibodies against pathogenic agents shield us from infections and are the basis of many diagnostic tests. Using peptide arrays, we investigated the antibody response upon vaccination with tetanus and the infection with Lyme disease with single amino acid resolution. The amino acid sequences of the tetanus toxin and the immunodominant VlsE antigen of B.burgdorferi were printed as overlapping peptides and incubated with patient sera.
In a second step, interacting peptides were screened in an in-depth epitope substitution analysis to identify key amino acids that are indispensable for the binding of the respective antibody. Remarkably, our studies revealed in both cases that the antibody fingerprints are almost identical, if the same epitope is targeted by antibodies. The presented approach can be applied to:

- identify diagnostic peptide biomarkers
- enable the study of cross-reactive antigens to prevent false positive tests
- develop novel peptide-based vaccines
- screen suitable anti-toxin antibodies for the treatment of infections

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