Predictive analysis of B-cell antigenic epitopes in phospholipase D toxins from <i>Loxosceles</i> spiders.

ABSTRACT: The Phospholipase D (PLD) toxin family, a major component of the Loxosceles spider venom, is a valuable biotechnological tool for developing antivenom treatment and diagnostic assays to overcome and prevent loxoscelism. However, there is limited knowledge about the antigenic structure of the PLD family or if sequence diversity correlates with antigenic variability. This study aimed to evaluate the possible antigenic diversity of PLDs sequences among different species of spiders of the Loxosceles genus through a predictive analysis of potential continuous and discontinuous antigenic epitopes of two phylogenetic interspecies clusters. Thus, L. laeta had higher amino acid sequence variation than other species, being classified into three phylogenetic clusters at the intra

SUBMITTER: Catalan A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11994341 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature