Pep-3D-Search: a method for B-cell epitope prediction based on mimotope analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The prediction of conformational B-cell epitopes is one of the most important goals in immunoinformatics. The solution to this problem, even if approximate, would help in designing experiments to precisely map the residues of interac...

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Main Authors: Wang Yan, Guo Shu, Bao Yong, Huang Yan, Zhou Chun, Li Yu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2008-12-01
Series:BMC Bioinformatics
Online Access:http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/9/538
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author Wang Yan
Guo Shu
Bao Yong
Huang Yan
Zhou Chun
Li Yu
author_facet Wang Yan
Guo Shu
Bao Yong
Huang Yan
Zhou Chun
Li Yu
author_sort Wang Yan
collection DOAJ
description <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The prediction of conformational B-cell epitopes is one of the most important goals in immunoinformatics. The solution to this problem, even if approximate, would help in designing experiments to precisely map the residues of interaction between an antigen and an antibody. Consequently, this area of research has received considerable attention from immunologists, structural biologists and computational biologists. Phage-displayed random peptide libraries are powerful tools used to obtain mimotopes that are selected by binding to a given monoclonal antibody (mAb) in a similar way to the native epitope. These mimotopes can be considered as functional epitope mimics. Mimotope analysis based methods can predict not only linear but also conformational epitopes and this has been the focus of much research in recent years. Though some algorithms based on mimotope analysis have been proposed, the precise localization of the interaction site mimicked by the mimotopes is still a challenging task.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study, we propose a method for B-cell epitope prediction based on mimotope analysis called Pep-3D-Search. Given the 3D structure of an antigen and a set of mimotopes (or a motif sequence derived from the set of mimotopes), Pep-3D-Search can be used in two modes: mimotope or motif. To evaluate the performance of Pep-3D-Search to predict epitopes from a set of mimotopes, 10 epitopes defined by crystallography were compared with the predicted results from a Pep-3D-Search: the average Matthews correlation oefficient (MCC), sensitivity and precision were 0.1758, 0.3642 and 0.6948. Compared with other available prediction algorithms, Pep-3D-Search showed comparable MCC, specificity and precision, and could provide novel, rational results. To verify the capability of Pep-3D-Search to align a motif sequence to a 3D structure for predicting epitopes, 6 test cases were used. The predictive performance of Pep-3D-Search was demonstrated to be superior to that of other similar programs. Furthermore, a set of test cases with different lengths of sequences was constructed to examine Pep-3D-Search's capability in searching sequences on a 3D structure. The experimental results demonstrated the excellent search capability of Pep-3D-Search, especially when the length of the query sequence becomes longer; the iteration numbers of Pep-3D-Search to precisely localize the target paths did not obviously increase. This means that Pep-3D-Search has the potential to quickly localize the epitope regions mimicked by longer mimotopes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our Pep-3D-Search provides a powerful approach for localizing the surface region mimicked by the mimotopes. As a publicly available tool, Pep-3D-Search can be utilized and conveniently evaluated, and it can also be used to complement other existing tools. The data sets and open source code used to obtain the results in this paper are available on-line and as supplementary material. More detailed materials may be accessed at <url>http://kyc.nenu.edu.cn/Pep3DSearch/</url>.</p>
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spelling doaj.art-5616b99d87cf4f3eb36794153ecf71bc2022-12-22T03:17:52ZengBMCBMC Bioinformatics1471-21052008-12-019153810.1186/1471-2105-9-538Pep-3D-Search: a method for B-cell epitope prediction based on mimotope analysisWang YanGuo ShuBao YongHuang YanZhou ChunLi Yu<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The prediction of conformational B-cell epitopes is one of the most important goals in immunoinformatics. The solution to this problem, even if approximate, would help in designing experiments to precisely map the residues of interaction between an antigen and an antibody. Consequently, this area of research has received considerable attention from immunologists, structural biologists and computational biologists. Phage-displayed random peptide libraries are powerful tools used to obtain mimotopes that are selected by binding to a given monoclonal antibody (mAb) in a similar way to the native epitope. These mimotopes can be considered as functional epitope mimics. Mimotope analysis based methods can predict not only linear but also conformational epitopes and this has been the focus of much research in recent years. Though some algorithms based on mimotope analysis have been proposed, the precise localization of the interaction site mimicked by the mimotopes is still a challenging task.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study, we propose a method for B-cell epitope prediction based on mimotope analysis called Pep-3D-Search. Given the 3D structure of an antigen and a set of mimotopes (or a motif sequence derived from the set of mimotopes), Pep-3D-Search can be used in two modes: mimotope or motif. To evaluate the performance of Pep-3D-Search to predict epitopes from a set of mimotopes, 10 epitopes defined by crystallography were compared with the predicted results from a Pep-3D-Search: the average Matthews correlation oefficient (MCC), sensitivity and precision were 0.1758, 0.3642 and 0.6948. Compared with other available prediction algorithms, Pep-3D-Search showed comparable MCC, specificity and precision, and could provide novel, rational results. To verify the capability of Pep-3D-Search to align a motif sequence to a 3D structure for predicting epitopes, 6 test cases were used. The predictive performance of Pep-3D-Search was demonstrated to be superior to that of other similar programs. Furthermore, a set of test cases with different lengths of sequences was constructed to examine Pep-3D-Search's capability in searching sequences on a 3D structure. The experimental results demonstrated the excellent search capability of Pep-3D-Search, especially when the length of the query sequence becomes longer; the iteration numbers of Pep-3D-Search to precisely localize the target paths did not obviously increase. This means that Pep-3D-Search has the potential to quickly localize the epitope regions mimicked by longer mimotopes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our Pep-3D-Search provides a powerful approach for localizing the surface region mimicked by the mimotopes. As a publicly available tool, Pep-3D-Search can be utilized and conveniently evaluated, and it can also be used to complement other existing tools. The data sets and open source code used to obtain the results in this paper are available on-line and as supplementary material. More detailed materials may be accessed at <url>http://kyc.nenu.edu.cn/Pep3DSearch/</url>.</p>http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/9/538
spellingShingle Wang Yan
Guo Shu
Bao Yong
Huang Yan
Zhou Chun
Li Yu
Pep-3D-Search: a method for B-cell epitope prediction based on mimotope analysis
BMC Bioinformatics
title Pep-3D-Search: a method for B-cell epitope prediction based on mimotope analysis
title_full Pep-3D-Search: a method for B-cell epitope prediction based on mimotope analysis
title_fullStr Pep-3D-Search: a method for B-cell epitope prediction based on mimotope analysis
title_full_unstemmed Pep-3D-Search: a method for B-cell epitope prediction based on mimotope analysis
title_short Pep-3D-Search: a method for B-cell epitope prediction based on mimotope analysis
title_sort pep 3d search a method for b cell epitope prediction based on mimotope analysis
url http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/9/538
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