Prediction of antigenic determinants and secondary structures of the K88 and CFA1 fimbrial proteins from enteropathogenic Escherichia coli.

Recently the amino acid sequences of the K88ab and the CFA1 fimbrial proteins from enteropathogenic Escherichia coli have become available. To elucidate the immunological interrelationships among the K88 family of antigenic variants, and to estimate the nature and position of the antigenic determinants in the K88 and CFA1 proteins, the positions of these features in the amino acid sequences have been predicted. This has been done by computerized algorithms, incorporating such factors as hydrophilicity and secondary structural potential. Some of the predicted determinants of K88 show good correlation with the known sequence differences between the antigenic variants of this protein. The presented results point to a possible use of synthetic vaccines against fimbriated pathogenic E. coli strains.