Modification of the antigenic structure of human interferon alpha-2 by PH 2 treatment: a further support for the antigenic relationship between alpha and beta interferons.

We have recently reported that a unique antigenic structure, designated as Common epitope 1, was found to be shared by human recombinant IFN alpha-2 and the human fibroblast IFN beta. The Common epitope 1 was identified with the aid of a synthetic IFN alpha-2 fragment SH 132-137. Based on this observation, we proposed the hypothesis that an antigenic relationship should exist also between natural human leukocyte IFN alpha and natural human fibroblast IFN beta.