Mimotopes of viral antigens and biologically important molecules as candidate vaccines and potential immunotherapeutics.
Partidos, CD;
Steward, MW;
(2002)
Mimotopes of viral antigens and biologically important molecules as candidate vaccines and potential immunotherapeutics.
Combinatorial chemistry & high throughput screening, 5 (1).
pp. 15-27.
ISSN 1386-2073
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2174/1386207023330589
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Antigen recognition by antibodies or ligand-receptor interactions involve small areas of the molecule named epitopes that are normally conformational in nature. The availability of combinatorial peptide libraries has provided a powerful tool for selecting novel sequences which mimic conformational epitopes (mimotopes) either structurally and/or immunologically. These mimotopes can be particularly useful in a number of situations, including: the development of vaccines against tumors, infectious diseases or allergic conditions; the design of molecules which can act as agonists or antagonists of various biologically-important molecules; and for the development of diagnostic assays. This article reviews the authors work on the application of combinatorial peptide libraries to identify mimotopes of protective B-cell epitopes from various pathogens, and the search for molecules able to block the biological activities of TNF-alpha, a cytokine which plays a key role in inflammation.
