Structural allele-specific patterns adopted by epitopes in the MHC-I cleft and reconstruction of MHC:peptide complexes to cross-reactivity assessment.

ABSTRACT: The immune system is engaged in a constant antigenic surveillance through the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) class I antigen presentation pathway. This is an efficient mechanism for detection of intracellular infections, especially viral ones. In this work we describe conformational patterns shared by epitopes presented by a given MHC allele and use these features to develop a docking approach that simulates the peptide loading into the MHC cleft. Our strategy, to construct in silico MHC:peptide complexes, was successfully tested by reproducing four different crystal structures of MHC-I molecules available at the Protein Data Bank (PDB). An in silico study of cross-reactivity potential was also performed between the wild-type complex HLA-A2-NS31073 and nine MHC:peptide complexes pr

SUBMITTER: Antunes DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2860844 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature