Influence of the conformation of a macromolecule on the generation of T-cell proliferative response. A study with model polypeptides.

E Lacassie (1) , A. Delmas (1) , Y. Trudelle (1)

1 CBM - Centre de biophysique moléculaire

To study the influence of the conformation of polypeptidic macromolecules on the generation of T-cell epitopes, sequential polypeptides with an octamer repeat unit were designed and synthesized. They adopt mainly unordered and alpha-helical conformations. Among these polypeptides, those containing proline are fully or partly unordered, and are more effective at inducing T-cell proliferation than a proline-free very stable alpha-helical polypeptide. This extremely stable alpha-helical conformation, probably stabilized by aggregation, would enhance its stability against proteolytic processing.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

E Lacassie, A. Delmas, Y. Trudelle. Influence of the conformation of a macromolecule on the generation of T-cell proliferative response. A study with model polypeptides.. FEBS Letters, 1994, 349 (3), pp.380-4. ⟨hal-02146930⟩