miPepBase: A Database of Experimentally Verified Peptides Involved in Molecular Mimicry

Abstract

Autoimmune diseases emerge due to several reasons, of which molecular mimicry i.e., similarity between the host's and pathogen's interacting peptides is an important reason. In the present study we have reported a database of only experimentally verified peptide sequences, which exhibit molecular mimicry. The database is named as miPepBase (Mimicry Peptide Database) and contains comprehensive information about mimicry proteins and peptides of both host (and model organism) and pathogen. It also provides information about physicochemical properties of protein and mimicry peptides, which might be helpful in predicting the nature of protein and optimization of protein expression. The miPepBase can be searched using a keyword or, by autoimmune disease(s) or by a combination of host and pathogen taxonomic group or their name. To facilitate the search of proteins and/or epitope in miPepBase, which is similar to the user's interest, BLAST search tool is also incorporated. miPepBase is an open access database and available at http://proteininformatics.org/mkumar/mipepbase.

Keywords: autoimmune disease; cross-reactivity; database; molecular mimicry; peptide.

Figure 1

Architecture of miPepBase.

Figure 2

Data statistics (A) Based on pathogen taxonomic group, (B) Based on autoimmune disease.

Figure 3

Process of stepwise data retrieval and analysis in miPepBase. The user can search query with following options: (A) Keyword search, (B) Search by disease, (C) Search by host and pathogen taxonomic group, (D) Search by host and pathogen name. The search from (A–D) options display search result table and from that user can select the entry/displayed result for further detailed analysis. Sequence based search can also be searched by (E) BLAST search option and each hit is further linked to its details information page. The detail of result obtained from search options (A–E) is displayed by corresponding small case (the number indicates step number). From example a1–a6 denotes the results that can be obtained using keyword search option (A).