Granier C, Novotny J, Fontecilla-Camps J C, Fourquet P, el Ayeb M, Bahraoui E
CNRS URA 37, INSERM U 172, Laboratoire de Biochimie, Faculté de Médecine, Marseille, France.
Mol Immunol. 1989 Jun;26(6):503-13. doi: 10.1016/0161-5890(89)90001-1.
Scorpion toxins constitute a family of homologous proteins that exert potent pharmacological effects on ion channels. These proteins are immunogenic and constitute a good model for investigation of the molecular basis of antigenicity. In the first part of this article we summarize the results we have obtained in recent years concerning the location of the main antigenic regions of a model toxin, toxin II of the North African scorpion Androctonus australis Hector. Then, thanks to the recently available atomic coordinates of this toxin, we analyzed the relationships between the structural features of the protein and the location of the antigenic regions: we found that antigenic regions are located at exposed parts of the molecular surface, i.e. in reverse turns and the alpha-helix. These surface parts also correspond to segments of the polypeptide chain which are most accessible to a large spherical probe modelizing an antibody molecule. Finally, we obtained a general idea of what could be the main discontinuous antigenic determinants by looking for the neighboring relationships between the most exposed residues of the protein.
蝎毒素是一类同源蛋白家族，对离子通道具有强大的药理作用。这些蛋白具有免疫原性，是研究抗原性分子基础的良好模型。在本文的第一部分，我们总结了近年来关于一种模型毒素——北非蝎（Androctonus australis Hector）的毒素II主要抗原区域定位的研究结果。然后，借助该毒素最近可得的原子坐标，我们分析了蛋白质结构特征与抗原区域定位之间的关系：我们发现抗原区域位于分子表面的暴露部位，即在反向转角和α螺旋处。这些表面部分也对应于多肽链中对模拟抗体分子的大型球形探针最易接近的片段。最后，通过寻找蛋白质中最暴露残基之间的相邻关系，我们对主要的不连续抗原决定簇有了一个大致的概念。
