[Prediction for helper T cell epitopes and its application in vaccine development against parasite infection]

Cellular immunity plays an important role in defense against diseases, such as pathogenic infection, autoimmunity and tumor. With the progress of molecular immunology, mechanisms of T cellular immunity, and the T cell epitopes and functional genomics, studies on the prediction based on data-derived for T cell epitopes has been highlighted, and could be one of the useful tools for application in vaccine development. This review summarizes theory and methodology of prediction for helper T cell epitopes, and their application in vaccine development against parasites, and new research directions are also discussed.