Reproducibility and conflicts in immune epitope data

Abstract

The Immune Epitope Database is uniquely positioned to assess the body of research related to immune epitopes, we have manually curated all such published data. Thus, we are able to make observations on the state of these fields of research, as well as aggregate the individual data points to present a clearer picture of the immune response to specific antigens in all studied hosts. Additionally, we are able to identify where conflicts in the literature exist and where publications fall short in terms of identifiable methods and in reproducibility. Here we present guidelines to improve the quality of immune epitope data, which will benefit journals and researchers alike.

Keywords: Immune Epitope Database; database; immune epitope; reproducibility.

Figure 1

The human immune response to Timothy grass Phl p 1 protein. Four hundred assays were aggregated from 13 manuscripts. (a) Graphical representation of the human response frequency of each residue position of the Timothy grass Phl p 1 protein. (b) Positive and negative responses for each residue position of the Timothy grass Phl p 1 protein, depicted as the total number of assays performed for each residue.

Figure 2

The immune response to the same region of influenza A virus haemagglutinin (HA) protein in two different strains of mice is significantly different. (a) Positive and negative immune response of the HA protein in BALB/c mouse strains. (b) Positive and negative immune response of the HA protein in C57BL/6 mouse strains.