The Length Distribution of Class I-Restricted T Cell Epitopes Is Determined by Both Peptide Supply and MHC Allele-Specific Binding Preference (2016)

Trolle T, McMurtrey CP, Sidney J, Bardet W, Osborn SC, Kaever T, Sette A, Hildebrand WH, Nielsen M, Peters B. The Length Distribution of Class I-Restricted T Cell Epitopes Is Determined by Both Peptide Supply and MHC Allele-Specific Binding Preference. J Immunol. 2016 Feb 15;196(4):1480-7. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1501721. Epub 2016 Jan 18. PubMed PMID: 26783342; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4744552.

Abstract

HLA class I-binding predictions are widely used to identify candidate peptide targets of human CD8(+) T cell responses. Many such approaches focus exclusively on a limited range of peptide lengths, typically 9 aa and sometimes 9-10 aa, despite multiple examples of dominant epitopes of other lengths. In this study, we examined whether epitope predictions can be improved by incorporating the natural length distribution of HLA class I ligands. We found that, although different HLA alleles have diverse length-binding preferences, the length profiles of ligands that are naturally presented by these alleles are much more homogeneous. We hypothesized that this is due to a defined length profile of peptides available for HLA binding in the endoplasmic reticulum. Based on this, we created a model of HLA allele-specific ligand length profiles and demonstrate how this model, in combination with HLA-binding predictions, greatly improves comprehensive identification of CD8(+) T cell epitopes.