Prediction of MHC binding peptides and epitopes from alfalfa mosaic virus.

Peptide fragments from alfalfa mosaic virus involved multiple antigenic components directing and empowering the immune system to protect the host from infection. MHC molecules are cell surface proteins, which take active part in host immune reactions and involvement of MHC class-I & II in response to almost all antigens. Coat protein of alfalfa mosaic virus contains 221 aa residues. Analysis found five MHC ligands in coat protein as 64-LSSFNGLGV-72; 86- RILEEDLIY-94; 96-MVFSITPSY-104; 100- ITPSYAGTF-108; 110- LTDDVTTED-118; having rescaled binding affinity and c-terminal cleavage affinity more than 0.5. The predicted binding affinity is normalized by the 1% fractil. The MHC peptide binding is predicted using neural networks trained on c-terminals of known epitopes. In analysis predicted MHC/peptide binding is a log transformed value related to the IC50 values in nM units. Total numbers of peptides found are 213. Predicted MHC binding regions act like red flags for antigen specific and generate immune response against the parent antigen. So a small fragment of antigen can induce immune response against whole antigen. This theme is implemented in designing subunit and synthetic peptide vaccines. The sequence analysis method allows potential drug targets to identify active sites against plant diseases. The method integrates prediction of peptide MHC class I binding; proteosomal c-terminal cleavage and TAP transport efficiency.