DEVELOPING PEPTIDE MIMOTOPES OF CARBOHYDRATE ANTIGENS

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. This proposal aims to continue a collaborative study initiated with the support of a BRIN Summer Faculty Fellowship (2003) with Dr. Tom Kieber-Emmons at UAMS. Utilizing molecular modeling software from Tripos (Sybyl6.9) and Accelrys (InsightII) and Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) and Dell workstations housed at Ouachita Baptist University and UAMS, the specifity of lectins will be investigated. It is known that lectins affect tumor cell survival, adhesion to the endothelium or extracellular matrix, as well as tumor vascularization and other processes that are crucial for metastatic spread and growth. Deciphering the recognition of DC-sign (a sugar binding protein implicated with HIV) and other lectins will be conducted by conformational analyses of carbohydrates that bind to them. The evaluation of peptide mimetics of carbohydrates identified via modeling and phage display should lead to the development of new vaccines. With the existing computational facilities at UAMS and OBU, including a secure shell network connection between workstations at OBU and the 8-processor SGI Origin (bioinformatics.uams.edu), known methodologies and structural databases will be utilized to continue this study. Future work in this area will continue to involve Ouachita undergraduates during subsequent academic years and summer sessions.