Pentamers not found in the universal proteome can enhance antigen specific immune responses and adjuvant vaccines.

ABSTRACT: Certain short peptides do not occur in humans and are rare or non-existent in the universal proteome. Antigens that contain rare amino acid sequences are in general highly immunogenic and may activate different arms of the immune system. We first generated a list of rare, semi-common, and common 5-mer peptides using bioinformatics tools to analyze the UniProtKB database. Experimental observations indicated that rare and semi-common 5-mers generated stronger cellular responses in comparison with common-occurring sequences. We hypothesized that the biological process responsible for this enhanced immunogenicity could be used to positively modulate immune responses with potential application for vaccine development. Initially, twelve rare 5-mers, 9-mers, and 13-mers were incorporated in frame

SUBMITTER: Patel A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3427150 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature