mimotope

A mimotope is often a peptide, and mimics the structure of an epitope. Because of this property it causes an antibody response similar to the one elicited by the epitope. An antibody for a given epitope antigen will recognize a mimotope which mimics that epitope. Mimotopes are commonly obtained from phage display libraries through biopanning. Vaccines utilizing mimotopes are being developed. Mimotopes are a kind of peptide aptamers.

When the term mimotope was first coined by Mario Geysen in 1986,{{cite journal|last=Geysen|first=HM |author2=Rodda, SJ |author3=Mason, TJ|title=A priori delineation of a peptide which mimics a discontinuous antigenic determinant.|journal=Molecular Immunology|date=July 1986|volume=23|issue=7|pages=709–15|pmid=2432410|doi=10.1016/0161-5890(86)90081-7}} it was used to describe peptides mimicking epitopes. However, this concept has been extended to refer peptide mimic of all types of binding sites. As the mimic of binding site, mimotope analysis has been widely used in mapping epitopes,{{cite journal|last=Smith|first=GP|author2=Petrenko, VA|title=Phage Display.|journal=Chemical Reviews|date=1997-04-01|volume=97|issue=2|pages=391–410|pmid=11848876|doi=10.1021/cr960065d}} identifying drug target and inferring protein interaction networks.{{cite journal |last=Tong|first=AH |author2=Drees, B |author3=Nardelli, G |author4=Bader, GD |author5=Brannetti, B |author6=Castagnoli, L |author7=Evangelista, M |author8=Ferracuti, S |author9=Nelson, B |author10=Paoluzi, S |author11=Quondam, M |author12=Zucconi, A |author13=Hogue, CW |author14=Fields, S |author15=Boone, C |author16=Cesareni, G |title=A combined experimental and computational strategy to define protein interaction networks for peptide recognition modules.|journal=Science|date=2002-01-11|volume=295|issue=5553|pages=321–4|pmid=11743162|doi=10.1126/science.1064987|s2cid=17604414 |doi-access=free }}{{cite journal|last=Thom|first=G |author2=Cockroft, AC |author3=Buchanan, AG |author4=Candotti, CJ |author5=Cohen, ES |author6=Lowne, D |author7=Monk, P |author8=Shorrock-Hart, CP |author9=Jermutus, L |author10=Minter, RR|title=Probing a protein-protein interaction by in vitro evolution.|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America|date=2006-05-16|volume=103|issue=20|pages=7619–24|pmid=16684878|doi=10.1073/pnas.0602341103|pmc=1458619|bibcode=2006PNAS..103.7619T |doi-access=free }} Furthermore, mimotope has also shown its potential in the development of new diagnostics,{{cite journal|last=Hsiung|first=PL |author2=Hardy, J |author3=Friedland, S |author4=Soetikno, R |author5=Du, CB |author6=Wu, AP |author7=Sahbaie, P |author8=Crawford, JM |author9=Lowe, AW |author10=Contag, CH |author11=Wang, TD|title=Detection of colonic dysplasia in vivo using a targeted heptapeptide and confocal microendoscopy.|journal=Nature Medicine|date=April 2008|volume=14|issue=4|pages=454–8|pmid=18345013|doi=10.1038/nm1692|pmc=3324975}} therapeutics{{cite journal|last=Macdougall|first=IC|author2=Rossert, J |author3=Casadevall, N |author4=Stead, RB |author5=Duliege, AM |author6=Froissart, M |author7=Eckardt, KU |title=A peptide-based erythropoietin-receptor agonist for pure red-cell aplasia.|journal=The New England Journal of Medicine|date=2009-11-05|volume=361|issue=19|pages=1848–55|pmid=19890127|doi=10.1056/NEJMoa074037|doi-access=free}} and vaccines.{{cite journal |last=Knittelfelder |first=R |author2=Riemer |first2=AB |author3=Jensen-Jarolim |first3=E |author-link3=Erika Jensen-Jarolim |date=April 2009 |title=Mimotope vaccination--from allergy to cancer. |journal=Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy |volume=9 |issue=4 |pages=493–506 |doi=10.1517/14712590902870386 |pmc=3049225 |pmid=19344285}} In addition, special affinities mediated by mimotopes to various semiconductors and other materials have shown very encouraging promise in new material and new energy studies.{{cite journal|last=Lee|first=YJ|author2=Yi, H |author3=Kim, WJ |author4=Kang, K |author5=Yun, DS |author6=Strano, MS |author7=Ceder, G |author8=Belcher, AM |title=Fabricating genetically engineered high-power lithium-ion batteries using multiple virus genes.|journal=Science|date=2009-05-22|volume=324|issue=5930|pages=1051–5|pmid=19342549|doi=10.1126/science.1171541|bibcode=2009Sci...324.1051L|s2cid=32017913|doi-access=free}} Gathering information on mimotopes into a special database therefore deserves. In 2010, the MimoDB database version 1.0 was released.{{cite journal|last=Ru|first=B|author2=Huang, J |author3=Dai, P |author4=Li, S |author5=Xia, Z |author6=Ding, H |author7=Lin, H |author8=Guo, F |author9=Wang, X |title=MimoDB: a new repository for mimotope data derived from phage display technology.|journal=Molecules (Basel, Switzerland)|date=2010-11-15|volume=15|issue=11|pages=8279–88|pmid=21079566|pmc=6259156|doi=10.3390/molecules15118279|doi-access=free}} It had 10716 peptides grouped into 1229 sets. These peptides were extracted from biopanning results of phage-displayed random peptide libraries reported in 571 papers. The MimoDB database has been updated to the current version 2.0 very recently.{{cite journal|last=Huang|first=J|author2=Ru, B |author3=Zhu, P |author4=Nie, F |author5=Yang, J |author6=Wang, X |author7=Dai, P |author8=Lin, H |author9=Guo, FB |author10=Rao, N |title=MimoDB 2.0: a mimotope database and beyond.|journal=Nucleic Acids Research|date=2011-11-03|pmid=22053087|doi=10.1093/nar/gkr922|volume=40|issue=1|pages=D271–7|pmc=3245166}} In version 2.0, it has 15633 peptides collected from 849 papers and grouped into 1818 sets. Besides the core data on panning experiments and their results, broad background information on target, template, library and structure is included. An accompanied benchmark has also been compiled for bioinformaticians to develop and evaluate their new models, algorithms and programs. In addition, the MimoDB database provides tools for simple and advanced searches, structure visualization, BLAST and alignment view on the fly. The experimental biologists can easily use the database as a virtual control to exclude possible target-unrelated peptides. The MimoDB database{{cite web|title=The MimoDB database|url=http://immunet.cn/mimodb|access-date=2011-11-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121116054757/http://immunet.cn/mimodb/|archive-date=2012-11-16|url-status=dead}} is freely available.