Nucleic Acids Research Advance Access originally published online on November 7, 2006
Nucleic Acids Research 2007 35(Database issue):D906-D910; doi:10.1093/nar/gkl849
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nucleic Acids Research, 2007, Vol. 35, Database issue D906-D910
© 2006 The Author(s)
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Articles |
SuperHapten: a comprehensive database for small immunogenic compounds
Institute of Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics, Charité – University Medicine Berlin Arnimallee 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
*To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +49 30 450 528375; Fax: +49 30 450 528942; Email: stefan.guenther{at}charite.de
Received August 15, 2006. Revised October 6, 2006. Accepted October 9, 2006.
The immune system protects organisms from foreign proteins, peptide epitopes and a multitude of chemical compounds. Among these, haptens are small molecules, eliciting an immune response when conjugated with carrier molecules. Known haptens are xenobiotics or natural compounds, which can induce a number of autoimmune diseases like contact dermatitis or asthma. Furthermore, haptens are utilized in the development of biosensors, immunomodulators and new vaccines. Although hapten-induced allergies account for 6–10% of all adverse drug effects, the understanding of the correlation between structural and haptenic properties is rather fragmentary. We have developed a manually curated hapten database, SuperHapten, integrating information from literature and web resources. The current version of the database compiles 2D/3D structures, physicochemical properties and references for about 7500 haptens and 25,000 synonyms. The commercial availability is documented for about 6300 haptens and 450 related antibodies, enabling experimental approaches on cross-reactivity. The haptens are classified regarding their origin: pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, drugs, natural compounds, etc. Queries allow identification of haptens and associated antibodies according to functional class, carrier protein, chemical scaffold, composition or structural similarity. SuperHapten is available online at http://bioinformatics.charite.de/superhapten.