Expanding its collection of ready-to-go peptides, Anaspec has released a selection of OVA peptides in the GO peptide format.
Proteolytic processing of proteins in the cytoplasm generates peptide epitopes that are generally eight to 10 amino acids in length.
The binding of these peptides to the surface major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules and subsequent presentation to T-cells elicits an immune response.
A model antigen extensively studied is Ovalbumin (OVA).
OVA is processed to the presenting octapeptide (257-264), SIINFEKL, through proteasomal and non-proteasomal activities.
As with peptides naturally presented by H-2Kb, SIINFEKL has on its fifth position an amino acid with an aromatic side chain (Phe) and on the eighth position an aliphatic side chain (Leu).
Variants of this peptide consisting of substituting different amino acids at strategic positions have yielded information on the interaction of this peptide and the MHC complex.
