Epitopes conformational

Augstein P, Ziegler B, Schlosser M, et al. Immunohistochemical differentiation of monoclonal GAD antibodies recognizing linear or conformational epitope regions. Pancreas 1997 15 139-146. 

Lecoeur, S., Andre, C., and Beaune, P.H., Tienilic acid-induced autoimmune hepatitis Antiliver and-kidney microsomal type 2 autoantibodies recognize a three-site conformational epitope on cytochrome P4502C9, Mol. Pharmacol., 50,326, 1996. 

Because conformational epitopes are not easily mimicked with linear peptides, which can elicit nonspecific antibodies, several alternative strategies such as synthetic cyclic peptides have been developed [see e.g., (18)]. A similar conformational restriction was seemingly achieved with a P-amyloid peptide that was anchored to the surface of liposomes via hydrophobic tails introduced at its both N- and C-termini. The reconstituted peptide proved highly immunogenic and elicited antibodies that could significantly prevent amyloid plaque formation in a model system (70). 

This procedure is particularly useful where an antibody recognizes an amino acid sequence or carbohydrate moiety, but may be unsuitable for antibodies that bind to a conformational epitope on the protein. 

Wang, L F, Hertzog, P J, Galanis, M, Overall, M L., Waine, G J, and Linnane, A. W. (1994) Structure-function analysis of human IFN-alpha—Mapping of a conformational epitope by homologue scanning J Immunol 152, 705-715. 

Woollard, D.J., Gauci, C.G., Heath, D.D. and Lightowlers, M.W. (2001) Protection against hydatid disease induced with the EG95 vaccine is associated with conformational epitopes. Vaccine 19, 498-507. 

Schreiber A, Humbert M, Benz A, Dietrich U (2005) 3D-Epitope-Explorer (3DEX) localization of conformational epitopes within three-dimensional structures of proteins. J Comput Chem 26 879-887... 

Kulkarni-Kale U, Bhosle S, Kolaskar AS (2005) CEP a conformational epitope prediction server. Nucleic Acids Res 33 W168-W171... 

Unlike linear B-cell epitopes, conformational epitope prediction models were limited by the need to understand antigen-antibody (Ag-Ab) complex structures before applying these algorithms. As with the linear epitopes, researchers started by seeking structural... 

Castrignano T, De Meo PD, Carrabino D et al (2007) The MEPS server for identifying protein conformational epitopes. BMC Bioinformatics 8 S6... 

As many B cell epitopes are described to be conformational (Aalberse, 2000), peptides identified by sequential approaches may render limited information and might exhibit reduced antibody-binding affinity. In a very stringent definition, conformational epitopes are composed of amino acids from different loci in the allergen sequence brought into proximity by the tertiary structure of the protein. Systematic characterization of conformational epitopes is much more difficult compared to linear epitopes, because it requires knowledge of the 3D structure, which is often limited. 

Untersmayr, E., Szalai, K., Riemer, A.B., Hernmer, W., Swoboda, I., Hantusch, B. et al. 2006. Mimotopes identify conformational epitopes on parvalbumin, the major fish allergen. Mol Immunol 43(9) 1454—1461. 

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