A HLA-DRB supertype chart with potential overlapping peptide binding function

Abstract

HLA-DRB alleles are class II alleles that are associated with CD4+ T-cell immune response. DRB alleles are polymorphic and currently there are about 622 named in the IMGT/HLA sequence database. Each allele binds short peptides with high sensitivity and specificity. However, it has been suggested that majority of HLA alleles can be covered within few HLA supertypes, where different members of a supertype bind similar peptides showing distinct repertoires. Definition of DRB supertypes using binding data is limited to few (about 29) known alleles (< 5% of all known DRB alleles). Hence, we describe a strategy using structurally defined virtual pockets to group all known DRB alleles with regard to their overlapping peptide binding specificity.