Structural Biology of Allergens and Structure-based Epitope Mapping
Walter Keller, Institut für Molekulare Biowissenschaften, Karl Franzens Universität
The structure determination of major allergens is a prerequisite for analysing surface exposed areas of the allergen and for mapping conformational epitopes. These may be determined by experimental methods including crystallographic and NMR-based approaches or predicted by computational methods. In this review we summarize the existing structural information on allergens and their classification in protein fold families. The currently available allergen-antibody complexes are described and the experimentally obtained epitopes compared. Furthermore we discuss established methods for linear and conformational epitope mapping, putting special emphasis on a recently developed approach, which uses the structural similarity of proteins in combination with the experimental cross-reactivity data for epitope prediction.
[1] Dall’Antonia, F., T. Pavkov-Keller, K. Zangger, W. Keller, (2014) Methods 66, 3–21.
[1] Dall’Antonia, F., A. Gieras, S.C. Devanaboyina, R. Valenta, W. Keller, (2011) J Allergy Clin Immunol. 128, 872-879.e8.
