Bcipep: A database of B-cell epitopes

Background: Bcipep is a database of experimentally determined linear B-cell epitopes of varying immunogenicity collected from literature and other publicly available databases. Results: The current version of Bcipep database contains 3031 entries that include 763 immunodominant, 1797 immunogenic and 471 null-immunogenic epitopes. It covers a wide range of pathogenic organisms like viruses, bacteria, protozoa, and fungi. The database provides a set of tools for the analysis and extraction of data that includes keyword search, peptide mapping and BLAST search. It also provides hyperlinks to various databases such as GenBank, PDB, SWISS-PROT and MHCBN. Conclusion: A comprehensive database of B-cell epitopes called Bcipep has been developed that covers information on epitopes from a wide range of pathogens. The Bcipep will be source of information for investigators involved in peptide-based vaccine design, disease diagnosis and research in allergy. It should also be a promising data source for the development and evaluation of methods for prediction of B-cell epitopes. The database is available at http:// www.imtech.res.in/ raghava/bcipep.