Continuum electrostatic methods applied to pH-dependent properties of antibody-antigen association

Protein association events are a critical component of the functioning of b iological systems. Antibody/antigen association, which involves extraordina rily specific interactions, has been a paradigm for the study of structural factors and intermolecular forces controlling protein-protein association. As new experimental approaches to the study of antibody/antigen affinity h ave become routine, and as more structures of complexes of antibodies and t heir antigens have become available, it has become possible to use computat ional approaches to study these interactions. Electrostatic interactions ar e known to play an important role in protein complex formation. In this rev iew, we focus on the use of continuum electrostatic methods to compute pH-d ependent properties of proteins and discuss the use of these methods in the study of antibody/antigen complexes. (C) 2000 Academic Press.