Designing a multi-epitope vaccine for cross-protection against Shigella spp: An immunoinformatics and structural vaccinology study

Publication date: December 2019Source: Molecular Immunology, Volume 116Author(s): Mokhtar Nosrati, Abbas Hajizade, Shahram Nazarian, Jafar Amani, Amir Namvar Vansofla, Yousof TarverdizadehAbstractShigellosis is a severe diarrheal disease with high mortality and morbidity rate. Until now, there is no approved vaccine against the disease. Therefore, the present study was planned to design a novel multi-epitope vaccine against Shigella spp., the causative agents of the disease based on the immunoinformatic tools. For this end, firstly seven conserved antigens of the bacteria, including IpaA, IpaB, IpaC, IpaD, OmpC, OmpF and VirG were selected. Then, linear B-cell epitope mapping of these proteins was carried out and top-ranked and shared epitopes were selected based on antigenicity, allergenicity, stability, toxicity and physicochemical properties for further analysis. In next step, B-cell derived T-cell epitopes were determined and appropriate epitopes were selected for incorporation into the final construct. Moreover, the selected epitopes and two mucosal adjuvants including ctxB and LT-IIc were joined using appropriate linkers. The three dimensional structure of the final construct was modeled and evaluated in term of structural quality and presence of conformational B-cell epitopes. Furthermore, binding affinity of the proposed vaccine to MHC I and II molecules were evaluated through molecular docking method using Hex 8.0. as well as the stability of the vaccine-MHC complexe...
Source: Molecular Immunology - Category: Allergy & Immunology Source Type: research