EpiTOP--a proteochemometric tool for MHC class II binding prediction.

Abstract

T-cell epitope identification is a critical immunoinformatic problem within vaccine design. To be an epitope, a peptide must bind an MHC protein. Here, we present EpiTOP, the first server predicting MHC class II binding based on proteochemometrics, a QSAR approach for ligands binding to several related proteins. EpiTOP uses a quantitative matrix to predict binding to 12 HLA-DRB1 alleles. It identifies 89% of known epitopes within the top 20% of predicted binders, reducing laboratory labour, materials and time by 80%. EpiTOP is easy to use, gives comprehensive quantitative predictions and will be expanded and updated with new quantitative matrices over time. EpiTOP is freely accessible at http://www.pharmfac.net/EpiTOP.