A rapid method to identify cytotoxic T-lymphocyte peptide epitopes from HLA-A2 (+) donors

It would be useful to develop a method to rapidly identify peptide epitopes for vaccine development. We present an algorithm that can predict sequence s that have a high binding activity for HLA-A2. These sequences were able t o induce specific cytolytic cells from human peripheral blood lymphocytes ( PBMC). A computer-assisted algorithm was constructed to predict binding act ivity for HLA-A2, according to anchoring amino acid combinations. The human papillomavirus (HPV) type 18 E7 oncoprotein was used to test the algorithm . Peptides predicted to bind were synthesized and binding activity was dete rmined by using the T2 cell assay. T2 cells pulsed with HPV-18 peptides wer e incubated with PBMC. Cytotoxicity assays were performed. From 110 possibl e sequences, four peptides were found to have a high binding activity. One of these peptides was able to induce significant lysis. Using this selectio n process only 3.6% of the total number of possible sequences was synthesiz ed to identify an immunogenic peptide. Our algorithm with the T2 binding as say allows a rapid method to detect peptide epitopes. (C) 2001 Elsevier Sci ence Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.