1
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Gupta S, Nerli S, Kutti Kandy S, Mersky GL, Sgourakis NG. HLA3DB: comprehensive annotation of peptide/HLA complexes enables blind structure prediction of T cell epitopes. Nat Commun 2023; 14:6349. [PMID: 37816745 PMCID: PMC10564892 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-42163-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2023] [Accepted: 09/29/2023] [Indexed: 10/12/2023] Open
Abstract
The class I proteins of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC-I) display epitopic peptides derived from endogenous proteins on the cell surface for immune surveillance. Accurate modeling of peptides bound to the human MHC, HLA, has been mired by conformational diversity of the central peptide residues, which are critical for recognition by T cell receptors. Here, analysis of X-ray crystal structures within our curated database (HLA3DB) shows that pHLA complexes encompassing multiple HLA allotypes present a discrete set of peptide backbone conformations. Leveraging these backbones, we employ a regression model trained on terms of a physically relevant energy function to develop a comparative modeling approach for nonamer pHLA structures named RepPred. Our method outperforms the top pHLA modeling approach by up to 19% in structural accuracy, and consistently predicts blind targets not included in our training set. Insights from our work may be applied towards predicting antigen immunogenicity, and receptor cross-reactivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sagar Gupta
- Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- College of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Santrupti Nerli
- Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Sreeja Kutti Kandy
- Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Glenn L Mersky
- Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Nikolaos G Sgourakis
- Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
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2
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Sanromán ÁF, Joshi K, Au L, Chain B, Turajlic S. TCR sequencing: applications in immuno-oncology research. IMMUNO-ONCOLOGY TECHNOLOGY 2023; 17:100373. [PMID: 36908996 PMCID: PMC9996383 DOI: 10.1016/j.iotech.2023.100373] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
•T-cell receptor (TCR) interaction with major histocompatibility complex-antigen complexes leads to antitumour responses.•TCR sequencing analysis allows characterisation of T cells that recognise tumour neoantigens.•T-cell clonal revival and clonal replacement potentially underpin immunotherapy responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Á F Sanromán
- Cancer Dynamics Laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK
| | - K Joshi
- Department of Medical Oncology, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.,Renal and Skin Unit, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
| | - L Au
- Cancer Dynamics Laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK.,Department of Medical Oncology, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia.,Cancer Immunology Program, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia.,Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, The University of Melbourne, Australia
| | - B Chain
- Division of Infection and Immunity, University College London, London, UK.,Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, UK
| | - S Turajlic
- Renal and Skin Unit, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.,Melanoma and Kidney Cancer Team, The Institute of Cancer Research, London, UK
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3
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Bradley P. Structure-based prediction of T cell receptor:peptide-MHC interactions. eLife 2023; 12:82813. [PMID: 36661395 PMCID: PMC9859041 DOI: 10.7554/elife.82813] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2022] [Accepted: 01/05/2023] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
The regulatory and effector functions of T cells are initiated by the binding of their cell-surface T cell receptor (TCR) to peptides presented by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins on other cells. The specificity of TCR:peptide-MHC interactions, thus, underlies nearly all adaptive immune responses. Despite intense interest, generalizable predictive models of TCR:peptide-MHC specificity remain out of reach; two key barriers are the diversity of TCR recognition modes and the paucity of training data. Inspired by recent breakthroughs in protein structure prediction achieved by deep neural networks, we evaluated structural modeling as a potential avenue for prediction of TCR epitope specificity. We show that a specialized version of the neural network predictor AlphaFold can generate models of TCR:peptide-MHC interactions that can be used to discriminate correct from incorrect peptide epitopes with substantial accuracy. Although much work remains to be done for these predictions to have widespread practical utility, we are optimistic that deep learning-based structural modeling represents a path to generalizable prediction of TCR:peptide-MHC interaction specificity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philip Bradley
- Herbold Computational Biology Program, Division of Public Health Sciences. Fred Hutchinson Cancer CenterSeattleUnited States,Institute for Protein Design. University of WashingtonSeattleUnited States
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4
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Conev A, Devaurs D, Rigo MM, Antunes DA, Kavraki LE. 3pHLA-score improves structure-based peptide-HLA binding affinity prediction. Sci Rep 2022; 12:10749. [PMID: 35750701 PMCID: PMC9232595 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-14526-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/11/2022] [Accepted: 06/08/2022] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Binding of peptides to Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) receptors is a prerequisite for triggering immune response. Estimating peptide-HLA (pHLA) binding is crucial for peptide vaccine target identification and epitope discovery pipelines. Computational methods for binding affinity prediction can accelerate these pipelines. Currently, most of those computational methods rely exclusively on sequence-based data, which leads to inherent limitations. Recent studies have shown that structure-based data can address some of these limitations. In this work we propose a novel machine learning (ML) structure-based protocol to predict binding affinity of peptides to HLA receptors. For that, we engineer the input features for ML models by decoupling energy contributions at different residue positions in peptides, which leads to our novel per-peptide-position protocol. Using Rosetta's ref2015 scoring function as a baseline we use this protocol to develop 3pHLA-score. Our per-peptide-position protocol outperforms the standard training protocol and leads to an increase from 0.82 to 0.99 of the area under the precision-recall curve. 3pHLA-score outperforms widely used scoring functions (AutoDock4, Vina, Dope, Vinardo, FoldX, GradDock) in a structural virtual screening task. Overall, this work brings structure-based methods one step closer to epitope discovery pipelines and could help advance the development of cancer and viral vaccines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anja Conev
- grid.21940.3e0000 0004 1936 8278Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, 77005 USA
| | - Didier Devaurs
- grid.4305.20000 0004 1936 7988MRC Institute of Genetics and Cancer, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH4 2XU UK
| | - Mauricio Menegatti Rigo
- grid.21940.3e0000 0004 1936 8278Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, 77005 USA
| | | | - Lydia E. Kavraki
- grid.21940.3e0000 0004 1936 8278Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, 77005 USA
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5
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Engineering the T cell receptor for fun and profit: Uncovering complex biology, interrogating the immune system, and targeting disease. Curr Opin Struct Biol 2022; 74:102358. [PMID: 35344834 DOI: 10.1016/j.sbi.2022.102358] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2021] [Revised: 02/13/2022] [Accepted: 02/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
T cell receptors (TCRs) orchestrate cellular immunity by recognizing peptide antigens bound and presented by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins. Due to the TCR's central role in immunity and tight connection with human health, there has been significant interest in modulating TCR properties through protein engineering methods. Complicating these efforts is the complexity and vast diversity of TCR-peptide/MHC interfaces, the interdependency between TCR affinity, specificity, and cross-reactivity, and the sophisticated relationships between TCR binding properties and T cell function, many aspects of which are not well understood. Here we review TCR engineering, starting with a brief historical overview followed by discussions of more recent developments, including new efforts and opportunities to engineer TCR affinity, modulate specificity, and develop novel TCR-based constructs.
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6
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Joshi K, Milighetti M, Chain BM. Application of T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire analysis for the advancement of cancer immunotherapy. Curr Opin Immunol 2022; 74:1-8. [PMID: 34454284 DOI: 10.1016/j.coi.2021.07.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2021] [Revised: 07/13/2021] [Accepted: 07/13/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
T cell receptor (TCR) sequencing has emerged as a powerful new technology in analysis of the host-tumour interaction. The advances in NextGen sequencing technologies, coupled with powerful novel bioinformatic tools, allow quantitative and reproducible characterisation of repertoires from tumour and blood samples from an increasing number of patients with a variety of solid cancers. In this review, we consider how global metrics such as T cell clonality and diversity can be extracted from these repertoires and used to give insight into the mechanism of action of immune checkpoint blockade. Furthermore, we explore how the analysis of TCR overlap between repertories can help define spatial and temporal heterogeneity of the anti-tumoural immune response. Finally, we review how analysis of TCR sequence and structure, either of individual TCRs or from sets of related TCRs can be used to annotate the antigenic specificity, with important implications for the development of personalised adoptive cellular immunotherapies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kroopa Joshi
- Department of Medical Oncology, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom
| | - Martina Milighetti
- Division of Infection and Immunity, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Benjamin M Chain
- Division of Infection and Immunity, University College London, London, United Kingdom; Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
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7
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Bell DR, Domeniconi G, Yang CC, Zhou R, Zhang L, Cong G. Dynamics-Based Peptide-MHC Binding Optimization by a Convolutional Variational Autoencoder: A Use-Case Model for CASTELO. J Chem Theory Comput 2021; 17:7962-7971. [PMID: 34793168 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.1c00870] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
An unsolved challenge in the development of antigen-specific immunotherapies is determining the optimal antigens to target. Comprehension of antigen-major histocompatibility complex (MHC) binding is paramount toward achieving this goal. Here, we apply CASTELO, a combined machine learning-molecular dynamics (ML-MD) approach, to identify per-residue antigen binding contributions and then design novel antigens of increased MHC-II binding affinity for a type 1 diabetes-implicated system. We build upon a small-molecule lead optimization algorithm by training a convolutional variational autoencoder (CVAE) on MD trajectories of 48 different systems across four antigens and four HLA serotypes. We develop several new machine learning metrics including a structure-based anchor residue classification model as well as cluster comparison scores. ML-MD predictions agree well with experimental binding results and free energy perturbation-predicted binding affinities. Moreover, ML-MD metrics are independent of traditional MD stability metrics such as contact area and root-mean-square fluctuations (RMSF), which do not reflect binding affinity data. Our work supports the role of structure-based deep learning techniques in antigen-specific immunotherapy design.
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Affiliation(s)
- David R Bell
- IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598, United States.,Advanced Biomedical Computational Science, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, Maryland 21701, United States
| | - Giacomo Domeniconi
- IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598, United States
| | - Chih-Chieh Yang
- IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598, United States
| | - Ruhong Zhou
- IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598, United States.,Zhejiang University, 688 Yuhangtang Road, Hangzhou 310027, China
| | - Leili Zhang
- IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598, United States
| | - Guojing Cong
- IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598, United States.,Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 1 Bethel Valley Road, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830, United States
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8
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Milighetti M, Shawe-Taylor J, Chain B. Predicting T Cell Receptor Antigen Specificity From Structural Features Derived From Homology Models of Receptor-Peptide-Major Histocompatibility Complexes. Front Physiol 2021; 12:730908. [PMID: 34566692 PMCID: PMC8456106 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2021.730908] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2021] [Accepted: 08/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The physical interaction between the T cell receptor (TCR) and its cognate antigen causes T cells to activate and participate in the immune response. Understanding this physical interaction is important in predicting TCR binding to a target epitope, as well as potential cross-reactivity. Here, we propose a way of collecting informative features of the binding interface from homology models of T cell receptor-peptide-major histocompatibility complex (TCR-pMHC) complexes. The information collected from these structures is sufficient to discriminate binding from non-binding TCR-pMHC pairs in multiple independent datasets. The classifier is limited by the number of crystal structures available for the homology modelling and by the size of the training set. However, the classifier shows comparable performance to sequence-based classifiers requiring much larger training sets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martina Milighetti
- Division of Infection and Immunity, University College London, London, United Kingdom
- Cancer Institute, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - John Shawe-Taylor
- Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Benny Chain
- Division of Infection and Immunity, University College London, London, United Kingdom
- Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, United Kingdom
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9
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Kniga AE, Polyakov IV, Nemukhin AV. [In silico specificity determination of neoantigen-reactive T-lymphocytes]. BIOMEDIT︠S︡INSKAI︠A︡ KHIMII︠A︡ 2021; 67:251-258. [PMID: 34142532 DOI: 10.18097/pbmc20216703251] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Effective personalized immunotherapies of the future will need to capture not only the peculiarities of the patient's tumor but also of his immune response to it. In this study, using results of in vitro high-throughput specificity assays, and combining comparative models of pMHCs and TCRs using molecular docking, we have constructed all-atom models for the putative complexes of all their possible pairwise TCR-pMHC combinations. For the models obtained we have calculated a dataset of physics-based scores and have trained binary classifiers that perform better compared to their solely sequence-based counterparts. These structure-based classifiers pinpoint the most prominent energetic terms and structural features characterizing the type of protein-protein interactions that underlies the immune recognition of tumors by T cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- A E Kniga
- M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia; N.M. Emanuel Institute of Biochemical Physics RAS, Moscow, Russia
| | - I V Polyakov
- M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia; N.M. Emanuel Institute of Biochemical Physics RAS, Moscow, Russia
| | - A V Nemukhin
- M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia; N.M. Emanuel Institute of Biochemical Physics RAS, Moscow, Russia
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