The overwhelming majority of immune responses to microbial proteins and allergens remain uncharacterized in even the most detailed cohort studies. The EnviroSIGHT reactome service provides an unprecedented wealth of information to link exposures with phenotypes across the spectrum of human health conditions, utilizing cross-sectional and/or longitudinal study designs.
Reactome Services
EnviroSIGHT™
Environmental Exposure Antibody Reactome Profiler
Detailed analysis of immune responses to the world’s largest panel of allergens, non-viral and microbial antigens.
What does EnviroSIGHT cover?
EnviroSIGHT is a peptide-level library covering:
1207
genera
3437
unique taxonomic IDs
31133
unique protein antigens and allergens
What does EnviroSIGHT contain?
242884
unique ~90 aa peptide
Three applications of characterizing the environmental antibody reactome
1
Discover immune responses associated with health or disease
Example finding
The association between anti-flagellin antibodies and juvenile dermatomyositis was first identified.
2
Detail the specific targets of the immune response to microbial antigens and allergens.
What determines the outcome of a microbial exposure – colonization or sterilizing immunity? Why do some immune responses cross-react with our own tissues? The answers to these questions – and many more – relate to a process called “epitope selection”: the immune system’s process for deciding which molecular targets to pursue.
Example finding
This information can be used to study age-related immunity to the gut microbiome in health and inflammatory bowel disease.
3
Provide valuable public health information.
Epidemiologic studies of antibodies can help identify gaps in immunity and detect responses to pathogens including bacteria causing gastrointestinal diseases (e.g. H. pylori, cholera, salmonella, shigella, campylobacter, C. difficile, etc.), whooping cough, and plague, pathogenic fungi (e.g. valley fever, histoplasmosis, and candidiasis), protozoan and helminth parasites, and non-viral pathogens transmitted by arthropod vectors (e.g. Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, malaria, leishmania, and lymphatic filariasis). Since venom proteins and antigens from arthropod vectors are also included, researchers can also evaluate exposures to venomous animals and important vectors of disease.
Example finding
Targeting a broad range of antigens enables high-powered serosurveillance studies that are critical for public health.
How EnviroSIGHT Works
EnviroSIGHT was designed to efficiently represent the broadest set of non-viral antigens and allergens. To this end, we extracted full-length protein sequences from the sources below, established multiple sequence alignments (MSAs) of homologous proteins, and then designed ~90 amino acid peptides to tile across the MSAs with a 60 amino acid step size (30 amino acid overlaps).
The Immune Epitope Database (IEDB)
This database is the most comprehensive repository of experimental data from the literature on immune epitopes studied in humans and other animal species. We retrieved all IEDB antigens with experimental evidence in human, primate, or mouse host, which had two or more associated literature references. We allowed evidence from B cell, T cell, and MHC assays. An additional set of sequences relaxed the requirement for multiple literature references, allowing us to include all IEDB protein antigens covering: (i) the Virulence Factor Database (VFDB, 32 genera of bacteria), (ii) Bacterial and Viral Bioinformatics Resource Center (BV-BRC, 24 genera of bacteria), (iii) Toxoplasma gondii, (iv) the Database of Fungal Virulence Factors, and (v) the WormBase ParaSite.
The ToxScan library
This was designed to include any protein from the 2016 UniProt database that included “toxin” or “virulence” in the keyword association. This library of ~100K 56aa peptides was constructed in T7 bacteriophage and assayed against ~1,000 serum and plasma samples. After collapsing peptide reactivities to the protein level, we selected for inclusion in the EnviroSIGHT library all 3,525 proteins that demonstrated reactivity in 1% or more of the samples.
The Segal microbiome library
About 60% of the library was dedicated in an unbiased manner to potential antigens from the microbiome of healthy individuals. Another 25% was dedicated to pathogenic bacteria, probiotic bacteria, and gut microbiota previously reported to be coated by host antibodies. About 10% of the library was dedicated to covering the Virulence Factor Database (VFDB), and a final ~10% of the library was used to cover gut bacteriophage proteins. After collapsing peptide reactivities to the protein level, we selected for inclusion in the EnviroSIGHT library all 16,515 proteins that demonstrated reactivity in 1% or more of the 1,968 samples tested.
The allergen component and arthropod vector component of the EnviroSIGHT library comprises 4,463 unique protein sequences found across five allergen databases: (i) World Health Organization (WHO)/International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS) Allergen Nomenclature Database (Radauer et al., 2014), (ii) Allergome, (iii) AllergenOnline, (iv) the Structural Database of Allergenic Proteins (SDAPs), and (v) the Database of allergen families (AllFam).
Our proprietary molecular display platform MIPSA (Molecular Indexing of Proteins by Self-Assembly) provides multiple technical advantages over previous generation technologies:
- Our unique multiple sequence alignment design approach enables the optimal representation of antigenic diversity, with an enhanced ability to deconvolute the cross-reactivity associated with homologous peptides.
- This design enables 100% representation of all selected full-length sequences at 95% identity.
- VeraCode™ technology guarantees that only unmutated peptides are considered in the final data.
Detailed analysis of immune responses to the world’s largest panel of non-viral antigens and allergens. Including:
- Pathogenic bacteria that cause diseases like strep throat, pneumonia, meningitis, gastroenteritis, Lyme disease and tuberculosis
- All known protein allergens from plants, fungi, food, and arthropods (including disease vectors)
- Beneficial components of the gut microbiome (including bacteria and bacteriophage)
- Parasites like toxoplasma, malaria, roundworms, and flatworms
- Pathogenic and opportunistic fungi
- Venom proteins from insects, arachnids, and reptiles
EnviroSIGHT Environmental Exposure Antibody Reactome Profiler FAQs
Is my organism of interest present in your library?
The library composition table provides a taxon-level summary of the organisms represented in EnviroSIGHT. Download a full list of organisms (XLSX). If you have any trouble finding your organism of interest, please reach out!
| Category | Total unique taxon IDs |
|---|---|
| Allergen (Plants, food, fungi, arthropods) | 600 |
| Archaea | 66 |
| Arthropod Disease Vectors | 23 |
| Bacteria (Pathogenic, opportunistic, microbiome) | 1,969 |
| Bacteriophage (virome) | 329 |
| Control peptides | 26 |
| Fungi (Pathogenic & opportunistic) | 26 |
| Other (non-pathogenic/non-allergenic), including model organisms and vaccine strains) | 51 |
| Parasites | 57 |
| Venom & Toxins (from animals and plants) | 290 |
| Total | 3,437 |
How does EnviroSIGHT compare to ToxScan?
EnviroSIGHT (MIPSA technology) is a much more comprehensive and updated molecular display of environmental protein antigens versus ToxScan (phage display technology). Our proprietary peptide design enables improved comparisons of homologous peptides within each genus. Further, MIPSA technology is more reliable and has improved specificity versus phage display technology.
Which antibody isotype is most relevant for my project?
Please reach out to discuss the specifics of your project with one of our technical experts. The default analysis would involve IgG reactome profiling using protein A/G coated bead-based immunocapture. However, other isotypes should be considered based upon your area of interest. For instance: If your project is focused on allergic responses, you may want to perform IgE reactome profiling. If your project is focused on mucosal immunity, it may be that IgA reactome profiling would generate the most relevant data. If your project is focused on acute infections prior to convalescence, you may want to explore IgM reactome profiling.
Related Antibody Profiling Services
Our other antibody profiling services can also be combined with EnviroSIGHT to:
To gain deeper insights, our standard and custom libraries can be combined in one reaction to profile antibodies of the same isotype. Learn more about our custom antigen libraries.
Find Out How Our Environmental Antigen Antibody Reactome Profiling Services Can Help You
We offer an infinity of possibilities to accelerate and advance your virome research.
In addition to standard IgG profiling, we offer detection of IgA antibodies related to mucosal immunity and IgM antibodies, which are indicative of a recent infection.
Contact us to start your project.