Epitope Discovery via Nanocluster Presentation

该提案的目的是开发用于表位呈递的多功能纳米颗粒平台， 金纳米团簇与免疫分析，用于创建针对免疫的纳米技术 系统基于纳米颗粒的疫苗的未来发展需要产生蛋白质 忠实地再现病原微生物保护性抗原构象的结构。 具有讽刺意味的是，我们在逻辑上设计具有保护性的重组或合成蛋白质抗原的能力相当有限。 有限公司由于天然蛋白质上的大多数表位都可能被组装，因此最重要的表位之一 表位测定工作面临的挑战是构象组装表位的鉴定。 我们推测，在金纳米团簇表面呈现的靶蛋白环结构 将呈现潜在环构象的统计学显著多样性，以提供 发现致病毒素未知表位的新方法。为了证明这一点的可行性 通过这种方法，我们正在创造一种表位标记的纳米簇，它模拟了芽孢杆菌的保护性抗原（PA）， 炭疽病在这个提议中，我们的目标是改进和扩展我们的表位概念策略， 通过以下具体目标介绍纳米团簇： 1.在金表面设计、合成和组装线性和构象表位 纳米团簇 2.确定哪种构象肽环构建体忠实地代表天然存在的 免疫原性结构。 3.使用纳米簇上呈递的表位筛选小鼠和人抗体文库以及患者血清 working加工towards走向the development发展of a diagnostic诊断microarray微阵列. 4.优化多功能纳米颗粒在小鼠体内的免疫应答。 纳米技术的具体挑战将是在纳米颗粒上创建特定的子结构 表面，这些特定构象的免疫识别，多功能纳米颗粒的产生，以及 肽环结构与纳米颗粒尺寸和曲率的关系。的具体变化 生物学和医学包括发现未定位的线性和构象表位，免疫表位， 系统对功能化纳米颗粒的响应，用于构象的抗体库的筛选， 表位，并最终发展到构象表位标记的纳米颗粒作为潜在的 疫苗。

The purpose of this proposal is to develop a multifunctional nanoparticle platform for epitope presentation on gold nanoclusters with immunological analysis for the creation of nanotechnologies that target the immune system. The future development of nanoparticle-based vaccines requires the generation of protein structures that faithfully recapitulate the conformation of protective antigens of pathogenic microorganisms. Ironically, our ability to logically design recombinant or synthetic protein antigens that are protective is quite limited. As most epitopes on native proteins are likely to be assembled, one of the most significant challenges facing epitope determination efforts is the identification of conformationally assembled epitopes. We hypothesize that the presentation of target protein loop structures on the surface of gold nanoclusters will present a statistically significant diversity of potential loop conformations to provide the foundation of a new method for discovering unknown epitopes of pathogenic toxins. To demonstrate the feasibility of this approach, we are creating an epitope-labeled nanocluster that mimics the protective antigen (PA) of Bacillus anthracis. In this proposal, our goal is to refine and extend our conceptual strategies for epitope presentation on nanoclusters via the following specific aims: 1. Design, synthesize, and assemble linear and conformational epitopes on the surface of gold nanoclusters. 2. Determine which of the conformational peptide loop constructs faithfully represent the naturally occurring immunogenic structures in native protein. 3. Screen mouse and human antibody libraries, and patient sera using epitopes presented on nanoclusters working towardsthe development of a diagnostic microarray. 4. Optimize the immunological response of multifunctional nanoparticles in mice. Specific challenges in nanotechnology will be the creation of specific substructures on a nanoparticle surface, immunorecognition of these specific conformations, creation of multifunctional nanoparticles, and correlation of peptide loop structure as a function of nanoparticle size and curvature. Specific changes in biology and medicine include the discovery of unmapped linear and conformational epitopes, the immune system response to functionalized nanoparticles, the screening of antibodies libraries for conformational epitopes, and ultimate development towards conformational epitope-labeled nanoparticles as potential vaccines.