title: The HLA-A2-supermotif: a QSAR definition.
abstract: Identification of epitopes capable of binding multiple HLA types will significantly rationalise the development of epitope-based vaccines. A quantitative method assessing the contribution of each amino acid at each position was applied to over 500 nonamer peptides binding to 5 MHC alleles--A*0201, A*0202, A*0203, A*0206 and A*6802--which together define the HLA-A2-like supertype. FXIGXI (L)IFV was identified as a supermotif for the A2-supertype based on the contributions of the common preferred amino acids at each of the nine positions. The results indicate that HLA-A*6802 is an intermediate allele standing between A2 and A3 supertypes: at anchor position 2 it is closer to A3 and at anchor position 9 it is nearer to A2. Models are available free on-line at http://www.jenner.ac.uk/MHCPred and can be used for binding affinity prediction.
authors.affiliation: Edward Jenner Institute for Vaccine Research, Compton, Berkshire, UK RG20 7NN.
authors.forename: Irini
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Doytchinova
authors.forename: Darren
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Flower
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D019943:Amino Acid Substitution; D015789:HLA-A2 Antigen / Q000737:chemistry*; D021281:Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship; D014612:Vaccines / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D015789:HLA-A2 Antigen; D014612:Vaccines