Artificial intelligence methods for predicting T-cell epitopes

Identifying epitopes that elicit a major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-restricted T-cell response is critical for designing vaccines for infectious diseases and cancers. We have applied two artificial intelligence approaches to build models for predicting T-cell epitopes. We developed a support vector machine to predict T-cell epitopes for an MHC class I-restricted T-cell clone (TCC) using synthesized peptide data. For predicting T-cell epitopes for an MHC class II-restricted TCC, we built a shift model that integrated MHC-binding data and data from T-cell proliferation assay against a combinatorial library of peptide mixtures.