Potentiating Antigen-Specific Antibody Production with Peptides Obtained from In Silico Screening for High-Affinity against MHC-II

Monoclonal antibodies with high affinity and specificity are essential for research and clinical purposes, yet remain difficult to produce. Agretope peptides that can potentiate antigen-specific antibody production have been reported recently. Here, we screened in silico for peptides with higher affinity against the agretope binding pocket in the MHC-II. The screening was based on the 3D crystal structure of a complex between MHC-II and a 14-mer peptide consisting of ovalbumin residues 323–339. Using this 14-mer peptide as template, we constructed a library of candidate peptides and screened for those that bound tightly to MHC-II. Peptide sequences that exhibited a higher binding affinity than the original ovalbumin peptide were identified. The peptide with the highest binding affinity was synthesized and its ability to boost antigen-specific antibody production in vivo and in vitro was assessed. In both cases, antigen-specific IgG antibody production was potentiated. Monoclonal antibodies were established by in vitro immunization using this peptide as immunostimulant, confirming the usefulness of such screened peptides for monoclonal antibody production.