A BASIC microcomputer program for prediction of B and T cell epitopes in proteins

A BASIC microcomputer program (EPIPLOT) has been developed forpredicting B and T cell antigenic sites in proteins from theirprimary structures. The program calculates and plots flexibility,hydrophilicity and antigenicity profiles using 13 differentscales, chosen as those yielding the best predictions on proteinswhose antigenic structures are known. T cell epitope predictionis basedon published algorithms focused on amphiphilic structuresand characteristic sequence patterns. The advantages of jointpredictions in locating T cell antigenic sites are also discussed. Received on December 12, 1989; accepted on January 31, 1990