RESUMO
Epitope specificity and protective activity of 5 types of monoclonal antibodies (MAB) to strain TM-14 of Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis (VEE) virus were studied. The competing VEE A4 and VEE B5 MAB were shown to recognize the conformation-dependent epitope of glycoprotein E2 third site and to possess an extremely high protective activity. VEE C6 MAB were active in all the studied biological tests (hemagglutination inhibition, neutralization tests, passive defence) and were directed to glycoprotein E2 site six. Competitive radioimmunoassay demonstrated that VEE A5 MAB also interacted with E2-6 site and by the sum of characteristics detected a new epitope of this site. VEE G1 MAB specific to glycoprotein E1 were characterized by protective, but not neutralizing activity, and competed with MAB to sites E2-2 and E2-6. This means that VEE G1 MAB detect a heretofore not described epitope E1 overlapping with two E2 sites.