Possible VC2.2.2 anti-ΔNΔC-VEGF-C epitope-localization within or near the receptor-binding region on ΔNΔC-VEGF-C.

(A) The VEGF-C residues contacting VEGF-R2 as reported in [32] are represented in yellow (N-terminal helix), red (loop 1), orange (loop 2) and brown (loop 3). The two epitope stretches identified in the peptide scan are colored in blue. From epitope B, only SCRCMSKL is shown, the C-terminal end is missing in the reported structure. Overlaps of epitope A (FFKPPCVSVYRC) and receptor-contacting residues in loop 1 are colored in purple. Residues in loop 1 found to affect (B) VEGF-R2-binding or (C) VEGF-R3-binding by mutational analysis [24] are shown with the same colors as in (A). The localization of the epitopes within the VEGF-C dimer is shown in (D) and their interference with the boxed interface of VEGF-R2 (cyan) is shown in (E), with magnifications in “side” view (F) and “top view” (G). The pdb file 2X1X was used for the representation (www.pdb.org).