title: Identification of T-cell epitopes using allele-specific ligand motifs.
abstract: In order to facilitate the identification of T-cell epitopes as useful components of synthetic vaccines, we investigated the role of MHC molecules as the restriction element for the recognition of epitopes by the alpha beta receptor of T cells. MHC molecules are able to present thousands of different peptides to T cells, with all the peptides presented by one distinct type of MHC sharing common structural features. Our group analyzed these common characteristics concerning peptide length (only MHC I ligands) and anchor positions (MHC I and II ligands) occupied by a small set of closely related amino acids. Until now, for more than fifty MHC proteins allele-specific "peptide motifs" have been defined. The exact knowledge of MHC I peptide motifs allows for a prediction of CTL epitopes, and this kind of prediction has been successful in many cases over the last three years.
authors.affiliation: Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stevanović
authors.forename: H G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Rammensee
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000939:Epitopes / Q000032:analysis*; D006681:HLA-D Antigens / Q000276:immunology; D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I / Q000276:immunology; D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D008024:Ligands; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D014442:Monophenol Monooxygenase / Q000276:immunology; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000939:Epitopes; D006681:HLA-D Antigens; D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I; D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II; D008024:Ligands; D014442:Monophenol Monooxygenase