Structural Properties of MHC Class II Ligands, Implications for the Prediction of MHC Class II Epitopes

Structural Properties of MHC Class II Ligands, Implications for the Prediction of MHC Class II Epitopes

Major Histocompatibility class II (MHC-II) molecules sample peptides from the extracellular space allowing the immune system to detect the presence of foreign microbes from this compartment. Prediction of MHC class II ligands is complicated by the open binding cleft of the MHC class II molecule, allowing binding of peptides extending out of the binding groove. Furthermore, only a few HLA-DR all...

MHC class II tetramers.

MHC class II tetramers have emerged as an important tool for characterization of the specificity and phenotype of CD4 T cell immune responses, useful in a large variety of disease and vaccine studies. Issues of specific T cell frequency, biodistribution, and avidity, coupled with the large genetic diversity of potential class II restriction elements, require targeted experimental design. Transl...

Improved prediction of MHC class I and class II epitopes using a novel Gibbs sampling approach

MOTIVATION Prediction of which peptides will bind a specific major histocompatibility complex (MHC) constitutes an important step in identifying potential T-cell epitopes suitable as vaccine candidates. MHC class II binding peptides have a broad length distribution complicating such predictions. Thus, identifying the correct alignment is a crucial part of identifying the core of an MHC class II...

Regulation of MHC Class II

Functional consequences of the binding of MHC class II-derived peptides to MHC class II.

Three MHC class II-derived synthetic peptides (I-A beta (g7)1-16, I-A beta (g7)52-77 and I-A alpha (g7)63-82YC) were analyzed for their ability to bind to syngeneic and allogeneic MHC class II molecules using a whole cell, competitive peptide binding assay. These studies demonstrated that the A beta (g7)1-16 peptide was able to specifically bind to syngeneic as well as to four allogeneic MHC cl...