• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.219-225
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• 2014

We examined the immunogenicity of H-2 class I-restricted and HLA-A2-restricted epitopes through peptide immunization of HLA-A2-transgenic mice that also express mouse H-2 class I molecules. All four of the tested epitopes restricted by H-2 class I robustly elicited T-cell responses, but four of seven epitopes restricted by HLA-A2 did not induce T-cell responses, showing that HLA-A2-restricted peptide epitopes tend to be poorly immunogenic in HLA-A2-transgenic mice. This finding was confirmed in HLA-A2-transgenic mice infected with a recombinant vaccinia virus expressing hepatitis C virus proteins. We examined the precursor frequency of epitope-specific naïve $CD8^+$ T cells in HLA-A2-transgenic and conventional C57BL/6 mice and found that the poor immunogenicity of HLA-A2-restricted peptide epitopes is related to the paucity of naïve $CD8^+$ T-cell precursors in HLA-A2-transgenic mice. These results provide direction for the improvement of mouse models to study epitope repertoires and the immunodominance of human T-cell responses.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.3053-3059
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• 2012

Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is a member of the epidermal growth factor receptor family of receptor tyrosine kinases that plays important roles in all processes of cell development. Their overexpression is related to many cancers, including examples in the breast, ovaries and stomach. Anticancer therapies targeting the HER2 receptor have shown promise, and monoclonal antibodies against subdomains II and IV of the HER2 extra-cellular domain (ECD), Pertuzumab and Herceptin, are currently used in treatments for some types of breast cancers. Since anti HER2 antibodies targeting distinct epitopes have different biological effects on cancer cells; in this research linear and conformational B cell epitopes of HER2 ECD, subdomain III, were identified by bioinformatics analyses using a combination of linear B cell epitope prediction web servers such as ABCpred, BCPREDs, Bepired, Bcepred and Elliprro. Then, Discotope, CBtope and SUPERFICIAL software tools were employed for conformational B cell epitope prediction. In contrast to previously reported epitopes of HER2 ECD we predicted conformational B cell epitopes $P1_C$: 378-393 (PESFDGDPASNTAPLQ) and $P2_C$: 500-510 (PEDECVGEGLA) by the integrated strategy and P4: PESFDGD-X-TAPLQ; P5: PESFDGDP X TAPLQ; P6: ESFDGDP X NTAPLQP; P7: PESFDGDP-X-NTAPLQ; P8: ESFDG-XX-TAPLQPEQL and P9: ESFDGDP-X-NTAPLQP by SUPERFICIAL software. These epitopes could be further used as peptide antigens to actively immune mice for development of new monoclonal antibodies and peptide cancer vaccines that target different epitopes or structural domains of HER2 ECD.

• BMB Reports
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.290-293
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• 2005

In order to investigate the epitope of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and its immunogenicity, the epitopes of bFGF were screened from the phage display library with monoclonal antibody GF22, which can neutralize the bio-activity of bFGF. By three rounds of screening, the positive phage clones with bFGF epitopes were selected, which can effectively block the bFGF to bind with GF22. Sequence analysis showed that the epitopes shared a highly conservative sequence (Leu-Pro-Pro/Leu-Gly-His-Phe/Ile-Lys). The sequence of PPGHFK was located at 22-27 of the bFGF. The specific immuno-response of mouse could be highly induced by phage clones with the epitopes. And the anti-bFGF activity induced by LPGHFK was 3 times higher than the original sequence, which showed that the mimetic peptide LPLGHIK might be used as a tumor vaccine in the prevention and treatment of tumor.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.42.1-42.20
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• 2022

Vaccination with tumor peptide epitopes associated with MHC class I molecules is an attractive approach directed at inducing tumor-specific CTLs. However, challenges remain in improving the therapeutic efficacy of peptide epitope vaccines, including the low immunogenicity of peptide epitopes and insufficient stimulation of innate immune components in vivo. To overcome this, we aimed to develop and test an innovative strategy that elicits potent CTL responses against tumor epitopes. The essential feature of this strategy is vaccination using tumor epitope-loaded nanoparticles (NPs) in combination with polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid (poly-IC) and anti-PD1 mAb. Carboxylated NPs were prepared using poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) and poly(ethylene/maleic anhydride), covalently conjugated with anti-H-2K^b mAbs, and then attached to H-2K^b molecules isolated from the tumor mass (H-2^b). Native peptides associated with the H-2K^b molecules of H-2K^b-attached NPs were exchanged with tumor peptide epitopes. Tumor peptide epitope-loaded NPs efficiently induced tumor-specific CTLs when used to immunize tumor-bearing mice as well as normal mice. This activity of the NPs significantly was increased when co-administered with poly-IC. Accordingly, the NPs exerted significant anti-tumor effects in mice implanted with EG7-OVA thymoma or B16-F10 melanoma, and the anti-tumor activity of the NPs was significantly increased when applied in combination with poly-IC. The most potent anti-tumor activity was observed when the NPs were co-administered with both poly-IC and anti-PD1 mAb. Immunization with tumor epitope-loaded NPs in combination with poly-IC and anti-PD1 mAb in tumor-bearing mice can be a powerful means to induce tumor-specific CTLs with therapeutic anti-tumor activity.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.103-110
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• 2001

$\alpha$-Fetoprotein(AFP) is a good marker for the detection of several diseases such as hepatocellular carcinoma, gonadal germ cell tumor, gastric tumor, and Down's syndrome. In this study, we developed ELISA, using synthetic peptides corresponding to the epitopes of AFP. Five kinds of peptides were synthesized from AFP to produce antibodies in rats that recognize AFP in human plasma as well as amniotic fluid and do not cross-react with serum albumin. All five kinds of antibodies showed good reactivities with their peptide-keyhole limpet hemocyanin conjugates. Anti-synthetic peptide 1 (R-N-E-Y-G-I-A-S-I-L, 4-13) antibody, in particular, reacted well with AEP as well as synthetic peptide 1-KLH but not with human serum albumin. The binding affinity(Kd) was 2.7$\times$10$^{-9}$M for peptide 1 and 6.8$\times$10$^{-8}$M for AEP. The range for measurement of AFP was 10~1,000 ng/ml. The within-assay and between-assay coefficients of variance(CV) were 4.83% and 10.97%, respectively. In a sample of 31 sera and 33 amniotic fluids, there was a good correlation between AFP values determined in this assay and those in a commercial kit. These results indicate that the antibodies against synthetic peptides corresponding to the epitopes of AFP are highly specific to APP and synthetic peptide-based ELISA would be useful for the measurement of human AFP.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.5973-5981
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• 2013

At present, the most common cause of cancer-related death in women is breast cancer. In a large proportion of breast cancers, there is the overexpression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). This receptor is a 185 KDa growth factor glycoprotein, also known as the first tumor-associated antigen for different types of breast cancers. Moreover, HER2 is an appropriate cell-surface specific antigen for passive immunotherapy, which relies on the repeated application of monoclonal antibodies that are transferred to the patient. However, vaccination is preferable because it would stimulate a patient's own immune system to actively respond to a disease. In the current study, several bioinformatics tools were used for designing synthetic peptide vaccines. PEPOP was used to predict peptides from HER2 ECD subdomain III in the form of discontinuous-continuous B-cell epitopes. Then, T-cell epitope prediction web servers MHCPred, SYFPEITHI, HLA peptide motif search, Propred, and SVMHC were used to identify class-I and II MHC peptides. In this way, PEPOP selected 12 discontinuous peptides from the 3D structure of the HER2 ECD subdomain III. Furthermore, T-cell epitope prediction analyses identified four peptides containing the segments 77 (384-391) and 99 (495-503) for both B and T-cell epitopes. This work is the only study to our knowledge focusing on design of in silico potential novel cancer peptide vaccines of the HER2 ECD subdomain III that contain epitopes for both B and T-cells. These findings based on bioinformatics analyses may be used in vaccine design and cancer therapy; saving time and minimizing the number of tests needed to select the best possible epitopes.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.431-437
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• 2016

The study of antigenic epitopes from Toxoplasma gondii has not only enhanced our understanding of the structure and function of antigens, the reactions between antigens and antibodies, and many other aspects of immunology, but it also plays a significant role in the development of new diagnostic reagents and vaccines. In the present study, T. gondii GRA6 epitopes were identified using bioinformatics tools and a synthetic peptide technique. The potential B cell epitopes of GRA6 predicted by bioinformatics tools concentrated upon 3 regions of GRA6, 1-20 aa, 44-103 aa, and 172-221 aa. Ten shorter peptides from the 3 regions were synthesized and assessed by ELISA using pig sera from different time points after infection. Three of the 10 peptides (amino acids 44-63, 172-191, and 192-211) tested were recognized by all sera and determined to be immunodominant B-cell epitopes of GRA6. The results indicated that we precisely and accurately located the T. gondii GRA6 epitopes using pig sera collected at different time points after infection. The identified epitopes may be very useful for further studies of epitope-based vaccines and diagnostic reagents.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.4167-4175
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• 2013

A najor current challenge and constraint in cervical cancer research is the development of vaccines against human papilloma virus (HPV) epitopes. Although many studies are done on epitope identification on HPVs, no computational work has been carried out for high risk forms which are considered to cause cervical cancer. Of all the high risk HPVs, HPV 16, HPV 18 and HPV 45 are responsible for 94% of cervical cancers in women worldwide. In this work, we computationally predicted the promiscuous epitopes among the E6 proteins of high risk HPVs. We identified the conserved residues, HLA class I, HLA class II and B-cell epitopes along with their corresponding secondary structure conformations. We used extremely precise bioinformatics tools like ClustalW2, MAPPP, NetMHC, Epi,Jen, EpiTop 1.0, ABCpred, BCpred and PSIPred for achieving this task. Our study identified specific regions 'FAFR(K)DL' followed by 'KLPD(Q)LCTEL' fragments which proved to be promiscuous epitopes present in both human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I, class II molecules and B cells as well. These fragments also follow every suitable character to be considered as promiscuous epitopes with supporting evidences of previously reported experimental results. Thus, we conclude that these regions should be considered as the important for design of specific therapeutic vaccines for cervical cancer.

• BMB Reports
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.461-467
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• 1999

Recombinant Mycobacterium smegmatis expressing ovalbumin was used to immunize C57BL/6(H-$2^b$) mice, and the humoral immunity against recombinant ovalbumin was analyzed. Antibodies were purified by denatured ovalbumin-conjugated affinity chromatography. The epitopes of the antibodies were screened with a random peptide library displayed on the tip of fUSE5 filamentous phage pIII minor coat proteins. Two peptides, IRLADR and SPGAEV, were selected predominantly by the recognition of purified antibodies using biopanning methods. The composition of the peptide sequence with the primary structure of OVA revealed that the peptide sequence analogizes to INEAGR, part of the $^{323}ISQAVHAAHAEINEAGR^{339}$ sequence previously reported as the antigenic determinant for murine Band also Th cell epitopes (I-$A^d$ binding). Also, the structures of these mimotopes obtained from restrained molecular dynamic computations resulted in the formation of a $\beta$-turn proven to be a secondary structure of the parent peptide within the ovalbumin molecule, enabling us to confirm the structural similarity. This study demonstrates that immunization with recombinant M. smegmatis can generate neutralizing antibodies identical with those induced by the administration of natural antigenic proteins and supports the potential use of mycobacteria as vaccine delivery vehicles.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.543-553
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• 2003

Due to considerably high degree of sequence homology between bacterial and human heat shock proteins(hsp), it has been widely thought that this protein might be involved in autoimmune disease mechanisms in humans. To elucidate how stress proteins contribute in the immunopathogenesis of periodontitis, the present study was performed to evaluate the T cell immune responses specific to Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) heat shock protein (hsp)60 and T-cell epitope specificities for P. gingivalis hsp60 in periodontitis. Anti-P. gingivalis IgG antibody titers were elevated in all patients. We could establish P. gingivalis hsp-specific T cell ines from the peripheral blood of peridontitis, a mixture of $CD4^+$ and $CD8^+$ cells. Of 108 overlapping synthetic peptides spanning whole P. gingivalis hsp60 moleculc, ten peptides with cpitopes specifities for T-cell were showed. Interestingly, ten epitopes were also identified as T-cell epitopes in the present study as well as B-cell epitopes in peridontitis. Therefore, all the ten representative epitopes were designated as common T-and B-cell epitopes for peridontitis. It is critical in developing a peptide vaccine strategy for potential prevention of periodontitis. It was concluded that P. gingivalis hsp60 might be involved in the immunoregulatory process of periodontitis with heat shock protein specificities.