Submitted:
02 October 2025
Posted:
04 October 2025
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Abstract
Keywords:
Introduction
Results
Mutated Peptide Generator (MPG)
Peptide Expression Annotation (PepX)
T Cell Prediction – Class I
T Cell Prediction – Class II
Peptide Variant Comparison (PVC)
PEPMatch
Patient Harmonic-Mean Best Rank (PHBR)
Clustering
Antigen eXpression based Epitope Likelihood-Function (AXEL-F)
Peptide Synthesis Score (PepSySco)
TCRMatch
Pipeline Integration
Case Scenario I: Expression-Based Filtering of Candidate Tumor-Associated Antigens in NSCLC
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Use PepX to retrieve the expression levels of each peptide
- From the tools menu drop-down, select PepX.
- Paste the list of 9–11mer peptides derived from the tumor-associated proteins of interest into the input box.
- Under ‘Prediction Parameters’ and ‘Quantitation Level’ select ‘Transcript’.
- Under ‘Data Source’ select TCGA and under ‘Dataset’ select LUAD to retrieve malignancy-specific values and click on ‘Run’.
- In the results table, inspect the column ‘Total Transcript TPM’ and use the sciphon icon to filter out peptides that are not sufficiently expressed (e.g., select a minimum value of 1 TPM). Click on ‘Save Table State’.
-
Add MHC class I binding predictions
- On the left side, under ‘Pipeline Map’, click on ‘+’ and select ‘T Cell Prediction - Class I’ and select the Peptide Table. The T Cell Prediction - Class I interface appears below the PepX results.
- bSelect the Peptide Length ‘as-is’ by clicking the checkbox.
- By default, the predictions are run for HLA-A*02:01, however this selection can be changed. Click on the button ‘Allele Finder’ and in the pop-up window select ‘27 Allele Panel’. This MHC panel was developed to cover >97% of the population [48]. Click on ‘Submit’, which will close the pop-up and populate the ‘MHC Alleles’ field with the selected 27 alleles.
- Under ‘Prediction Model’ select ‘NetMHCpan 4.1 EL’, which is currently the recommended tool, and click on ‘Run’.
- In the results table, examine the column labeled ‘median binding percentile’. This number represents the percentile rank of the predicted peptide relative to a background of random natural peptides, avoiding biases arising from MHC alleles with inherently higher or lower predicted affinities. Peptides with lower ranks are more likely to be presented, with strong binders having scores ≤ 0.5 and weak binders with scores < 2 [33]. Use the sciphon icon to filter out peptides that are not predicted to bind.
- Download the final list of filtered peptides by clicking ‘Download’, ‘All rows’, in comma-separated format (CSV).
Case Scenario II: Neoepitope Discovery for Personalized Immunotherapy in Glioblastoma
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Prioritize mutations likely to be presented in the patient’s MHC molecules with PHBR
- From the tools menu drop-down, select the Patient Harmonic Mean Best Rank (PHBR) tool.
- Paste the list of long mutated peptides (e.g., 21mers) with their corresponding mutation position(s) using a tab-delimiter from the sequence and use comma-separation for multiple positions.
- Select NetMHCpan 4.1 EL and NetMHCIIpan 4.3 EL models for MHC class I and II antigen presentation prediction, respectively.
- Introduce the MHC alleles of the patient. In the ‘Allele 1/2’ text box, type the patient’s MHC alleles, and a drop-down menu suggests alleles as you type. Repeat this for all the alleles and click on ‘Run’.
- Sort in ascending order by PHBR I and II, and select the top mutations with the lowest scores for either of the PHBR predictions.
-
Exclude self-peptides with PEPMatch
- On the left side, under ‘Pipeline Map’, click on ‘+’, select ‘PEPMatch’, and choose the ‘Peptide Table – Peptide’. The ‘PEPMatch’ interface appears below the PHBR results.
- Set mismatches to 0 using the slider.
- Select ‘All matches’.
- Check ‘Include unmatched peptides’ and click on ‘Run’.
- Select only the peptides not found in the human reference proteome. Use the sciphon icon in the ‘Matched Sequence’ column and select ‘-‘.
- Download the final list of filtered peptides by clicking ‘Download’ and ‘All rows’, in comma-separated format (CSV).
Conclusion and Discussion
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
References
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