METHODS FOR EPITOPE IDENTIFICATION Russian patent published in 2022 - IPC G01N33/68 C12Q1/37 G16B30/00 C07K16/00 

FIELD: biotechnology.

SUBSTANCE: present invention relates to methods for the identification of an epitope, to which an antibody can bind, on a protein. A method is proposed for the identification of an epitope, to which an antibody can bind, on a protein, wherein the specified method includes: (i) performing proteolytic cleavage of the specified protein in silico by one or more proteases to identify sites on the protein that are predicted to be cut by the specified one or more proteases, and a. performing protein homology modeling to predict, which in silico predicted protease-cutting sites are likely to be exposed, and/or b. performing docking of antibody fragments or proteases in silico to predict, which in silico predicted cutting sites are likely to be cut in vitro; (ii) performing limited or partial proteolysis of the specified protein in vitro by one or more proteases; (iii) identifying peptides released from the specified protein as a result of proteolytic cleavage in vitro at the stage (ii), and thereby identifying cutting sites; (iv) comparing in silico predicted cutting sites, identified according to the prediction as exposed or cut in vitro at the stage (i), with cutting sites identified at the stage (iii); (v) studying one or more epitopes in a protein area containing or flanking a cutting site, which is a protease-cutting site predicted in silico, identified according to the prediction as exposed or cut in vitro at the stage (i), but which is not a cutting site identified at the stage (iii), using one or more antibodies; and (vi) determining whether or not the specified one or more antibodies bind to the specified one or more epitopes, and thereby identifying an epitope on a protein, to which the antibody can bind.

EFFECT: obtaining methods for epitope identification.

24 cl, 17 dwg, 6 tbl, 3 ex