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Christianna Zygouri

Publications and source records attributed to Christianna Zygouri.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Quantitative online prediction of peptide binding to the major histocompatibility complex.

With its implications for vaccine discovery, the accurate prediction of T cell epitopes is one of the key aspirations of computational vaccinology. We have developed a robust multivariate statistical method, based on partial least squares, for the quantitative prediction of peptide binding to major histocompatibility complexes (MHC), the principal checkpoint on the antigen presentation pathway. As a service to the immunobiology community, we have made a Perl implementation of the method available via a World Wide Web server. We call this server MHCPred. Access to the server is freely available from the URL: http://www.jenner.ac.uk/MHCPred. We have exemplified our method with a model for peptides binding to the common human MHC molecule HLA-B*3501.

Antigen Presentation↗

MHCPred: A server for quantitative prediction of peptide-MHC binding.

Accurate T-cell epitope prediction is a principal objective of computational vaccinology. As a service to the immunology and vaccinology communities at large, we have implemented, as a server on the World Wide Web, a partial least squares-based multivariate statistical approach to the quantitative prediction of peptide binding to major histocom- patibility complexes (MHC), the key checkpoint on the antigen presentation pathway within adaptive cellular immunity. MHCPred implements robust statistical models for both Class I alleles (HLA-A*0101, HLA-A*0201, HLA-A*0202, HLA-A*0203, HLA-A*0206, HLA-A*0301, HLA-A*1101, HLA-A*3301, HLA-A*6801, HLA-A*6802 and HLA-B*3501) and Class II alleles (HLA-DRB*0401, HLA-DRB*0401 and HLA-DRB*0701). MHCPred is available from the URL: http://www.jenner.ac.uk/MHCPred.

Binding Sites↗

Computational vaccinology: quantitative approaches.

The immune system is hierarchical and has many levels, exhibiting much emergent behaviour. However, at its heart are molecular recognition events that are indistinguishable from other types of biomacromolecular interaction. These can be addressed well by quantitative experimental and theoretical biophysical techniques, and particularly by methods from drug design. We review here our approach to computational immunovaccinology. In particular, we describe the JenPep database and two new techniques for T cell epitope prediction. One is based on quantitative structure-activity relationships (a 3D-QSAR method based on CoMSIA and another 2D method based on the Free-Wilson approach) and the other on atomistic molecular dynamic simulations using high performance computing. JenPep (http://www.jenner.ar.uk/ JenPep) is a relational database system supporting quantitative data on peptide binding to major histocompatibility complexes, TAP transporters, TCR-pMHC complexes, and an annotated list of B cell and T cell epitopes. Our 2D-QSAR method factors the contribution to peptide binding from individual amino acids as well as 1-2 and 1-3 residue interactions. In the 3D-QSAR approach, the influence of five physicochemical properties (volume, electrostatic potential, hydrophobicity, hydrogen-bond donor and acceptor abilities) on peptide affinity were considered. Both methods are exemplified through their application to the well-studied problem of peptide binding to the human class I MHC molecule HLA-A*0201.

Allergy and Immunology↗

MHCPred: bringing a quantitative dimension to the online prediction of MHC binding.

The accurate prediction of T cell epitopes is one of the key aspirations of immunoinformatics. We have developed a partial least squares-based, robust multivariate statistical method for the quantitative prediction of peptide binding to major histocompatibility complexes (MHCs), the principal checkpoint on the antigen presentation pathway. As a service to the immunobiology community, we have made a Perl implementation of the method available as a World Wide Web server.

Algorithms↗

JenPep: a novel computational information resource for immunobiology and vaccinology.

JenPep is a relational database containing a compendium of thermodynamic binding data for the interaction of peptides with a range of important immunological molecules: the major histocompatibility complex, TAP transporter, and T cell receptor. The database also includes annotated lists of B cell and T cell epitopes. Version 2.0 of the database is implemented in a bespoke postgreSQL database system and is fully searchable online via a perl/HTML interface (URL: http://www.jenner.ac.uk/JenPep).

ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters↗