Methods and advances in study of conformational B cell epitopes

Recognition of protective B cell epitopes that leads to neutralizing antibody production and humoral immune response is the material basis of specific immune reactions, thus the study of neutralizing antibody-recognizable B cell epitopes plays a vital role in the advance of fundamental immunology, infection diagnosis, related vaccines especially polypeptide vaccines development, and drug target screening. Although studying these epitopes presents great difficulty as they are mostly conformational, several efficient methods have evolved with the development of immunology and bioinformatics. This paper reviews methods and the advance in research on conformational B cell epitopes. Key words: Antibodies, neutralizing; Molecular conformation; Epitopes; Methods