title: Mimotopes of viral antigens and biologically important molecules as candidate vaccines and potential immunotherapeutics.
abstract: Antigen recognition by antibodies or ligand-receptor interactions involve small areas of the molecule named epitopes that are normally conformational in nature. The availability of combinatorial peptide libraries has provided a powerful tool for selecting novel sequences which mimic conformational epitopes (mimotopes) either structurally and/or immunologically. These mimotopes can be particularly useful in a number of situations, including: the development of vaccines against tumors, infectious diseases or allergic conditions; the design of molecules which can act as agonists or antagonists of various biologically-important molecules; and for the development of diagnostic assays. This article reviews the authors  work on the application of combinatorial peptide libraries to identify mimotopes of protective B-cell epitopes from various pathogens, and the search for molecules able to block the biological activities of TNF-alpha, a cytokine which plays a key role in inflammation.
authors.affiliation: UPR 9021 CNRS, Institut de Biologie Moleculaire et Cellulaire, 15 rue Rene Descartes, F-67084, Strasbourg, France. H.Partidos@ibmc.u-strasbg.fr
authors.forename: C D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Partidos
authors.forename: M W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Steward
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000276:immunology* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000939:Epitopes / Q000276:immunology* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D018716:Molecular Mimicry / Q000276:immunology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010272:Parasitic Diseases / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy; D012327:RNA Virus Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy; D014611:Vaccination; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic / Q000276:immunology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D014765:Viral Vaccines / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D000956:Antigens, Viral; D000939:Epitopes; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic; D014765:Viral Vaccines