title: Dissecting the role of peptides in the immune response: theory, practice and the application to vaccine design.
abstract: Analytical biochemistry and synthetic peptide based chemistry have helped to reveal the pivotal role that peptides play in determining the specificity, magnitude and quality of both humoral (antibody) and cellular (cytotoxic and helper T cell) immune responses. In addition, peptide based technologies are now at the forefront of vaccine design and medical diagnostics. The chemical technologies used to assemble peptides into immunogenic structures have made great strides over the past decade and assembly of highly pure peptides which can be incorporated into high molecular weight species, multimeric and even branched structures together with non-peptidic material is now routine. These structures have a wide range of applications in designer vaccines and diagnostic reagents. Thus the tools of the peptide chemist are exquisitely placed to answer questions about immune recognition and along the way to provide us with new and improved vaccines and diagnostics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia. apurcell@unimelb.edu.au
authors.forename: Anthony W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Purcell
authors.forename: Weiguang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.forename: Nicole A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Mifsud
authors.forename: Lauren K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Ely
authors.forename: Whitney A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Macdonald
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Jackson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000917:Antibody Formation / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology; D000941:Antigens / Q000378:metabolism; D015195:Drug Design; D000939:Epitopes / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007111:Immunity, Cellular / Q000276:immunology; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*; D011487:Protein Conformation; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000276:immunology; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000941:Antigens; D000939:Epitopes; D010455:Peptides; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic