Neural models for predicting viral vaccine targets

J Bioinform Comput Biol. 2005 Oct;3(5):1207-25. doi: 10.1142/s0219720005001466.

Abstract

We applied artificial neural networks (ANN) for the prediction of targets of immune responses that are useful for study of vaccine formulations against viral infections. Using a novel data representation, we developed a system termed MULTIPRED that can predict peptide binding to multiple related human leukocyte antigens (HLA). This implementation showed high accuracy in the prediction of the promiscuous peptides that bind to five HLA-A2 allelic variants. MULTIPRED is useful for the identification of peptides that bind multiple HLA-A2 variants as a group. By implementing ANN as a classification engine, we enabled both the prediction of peptides binding to multiple individual HLA-A2 molecules and the prediction of promiscuous binders using a single model. The ANN MULTIPRED predicts peptide binding to HLA-A*0205 with excellent accuracy (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve--AROC>0.90), and to HLA-A*0201, HLA-A*0204 and HLA-A*0206 with high accuracy (AROC>0.85). Antigenic regions with high density of binders ("antigenic hot-spots") represent best targets for vaccine design. MULTIPRED not only predicts individual 9-mer binders but also predicts antigenic hot spots. Two HLA-A2 hot-spots in Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) membrane protein were predicted by using MULTIPRED.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Antigen-Antibody Complex / analysis
  • Antigen-Antibody Complex / chemistry
  • Antigen-Antibody Complex / immunology
  • Binding Sites
  • Drug Delivery Systems / methods*
  • Drug Design*
  • HLA Antigens / analysis
  • HLA Antigens / chemistry*
  • HLA Antigens / immunology
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Neural Networks, Computer
  • Pattern Recognition, Automated / methods
  • Protein Binding
  • Protein Interaction Mapping / methods*
  • Sequence Analysis, Protein / methods*
  • Viral Vaccines / analysis
  • Viral Vaccines / chemistry*
  • Viral Vaccines / immunology

Substances

  • Antigen-Antibody Complex
  • HLA Antigens
  • Viral Vaccines