Various approaches are currently proposed to develop therapies for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases and of cancer. One of the most promising approaches is the development of vaccines that elicit a cytotoxic T lymphocyte response. In approaching the problem of in vitro discovery and evaluation of potential antigen-specific epitopes, Mimotopes, in partnership with Pure Protein, offer a new technology for peptide synthesis and high throughput screening of CTL epitopes. The state-of-the-art peptide competition assay that underpins this technology is applied in 2 tiers:
Tier 1: High-throughput screening of hundreds-to-thousands of overlapping peptides to identify candidate peptide epitopes (PolyScreen) with any affinity for a class I MHC molecule.
Tier 2: Peptides of affinity are then detailed for their precise strength of interaction in tier 2 (PolyTest).
This 2-tiered approach allows the rapid identification of potential peptide candidates (synthesized as “truncated overlapping PepSets™” by Mimotopes) followed by fine characterization of these candidates. Because the peptide library contains all the final active CTL epitopes, it is more effective than cell-based screening with longer peptides (which may or may not be processed into CTL epitopes) and it provides a more precise epitope answer as compared to CTL epitope screening experiments. Developed onto a high-throughput screening platform, the new process bridges current screening gaps and considerably shortens the route to clinical development by allowing a systematic ranking of candidate epitopes for subsequent functional studies.
