International Journal of Molecular Sciences Article Characterization of Asparagine Deamidation in Immunodominant Myelin Oligodendrocyte Glycoprotein Peptide Potential Immunotherapy for the Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis Maria-Eleni Androutsou 1, Agathi Nteli 2, Areti Gkika 2, Maria Avloniti 3, Anastasia Dagkonaki 3, Lesley Probert 3 , Theodore Tselios 2,* and Simona GoliˇcGrdadolnik 4,* 1 Vianex S.A., Tatoiou Str., 18th km Athens-Lamia National Road, 14671 Athens, Greece;
[email protected] 2 Department of Chemistry, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, Greece;
[email protected] (A.N.);
[email protected] (A.G.) 3 Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, Hellenic Pasteur Institute, 127 Vasilissis Sophias Ave., 11521 Athens, Greece;
[email protected] (M.A.);
[email protected] (A.D.);
[email protected] (L.P.) 4 Laboratory for Molecular Structural Dynamics, National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, 1001 Ljubljana, Slovenia * Correspondence:
[email protected] (T.T.);
[email protected] (S.G.G.); Tel.: +30-26-1099-7905 (T.T.); +38-61-4760-409 (S.G.G.) Received: 7 August 2020; Accepted: 6 October 2020; Published: 13 October 2020 Abstract: Mannan (polysaccharide) conjugated with a myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) peptide, namely (KG)5MOG35–55, represents a potent and promising new approach for the immunotherapy of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). The MOG35–55 epitope conjugated with the oxidized form of mannan (poly-mannose) via a (KG)5 linker was found to inhibit the symptoms of MOG35–55-induced experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in mice using prophylactic and therapeutic vaccinated protocols. Deamidation is a common modification in peptide and protein sequences, especially for Gln and Asn residues.