T-cell epitope frequency in ordered and disordered protein regions of tumor associated antigens

Abstract

Using epitope predictions it was shown that both Human Leukocyte Antigens class I and class II (HLA-I and HLA-II) epitopes were more frequent in ordered regions of proteins and that epitopes appertaining to ordered protein regions were prevalently hydrophobic. The comparison between predicted and experimentally evaluated epitopes of several tumor-associated antigens, revealed that majority of epitopes, presented by HLA-I and HLA-II molecules, are localized in ordered protein regions.