scholarly journals Characterization of Plasmodium falciparum Proteome at Asexual Blood Stages for Screening of Effective Vaccine Candidates: An Immunoinformatics Approach

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. III.S24755 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satarudra Prakash Singh ◽  
Vishal Verma ◽  
Bhartendu Nath Mishra
Keyword(s):  
Plasmodium Falciparum ◽  
T Cell ◽  
Cell Epitope ◽  
Epitope Prediction ◽  
Proteome Analysis ◽  
Effective Vaccine ◽  
Secretory Proteins ◽  
Vaccine Candidates ◽  
Proteome Level

Malaria is a complex parasitic disease that is currently causing great concerns globally owing to the resistance to antimalarial drugs and lack of an effective vaccine. The present study involves the characterization of extracellular secretory proteins as vaccine candidates derived from proteome analysis of Plasmodium falciparum at asexual blood stages of malaria. Among the screened 32 proteins, 31 were predicted as antigens by the VaxiJen program, and 26 proteins had less than two transmembrane spanning regions predicted using the THMMM program. Moreover, 10 and 5 proteins were predicted to contain secretory signals by SignalP and TargetP, respectively. T-cell epitope prediction using MULTIPRED2 and NetCTL programs revealed that most of the predicted antigens are immunogenic and contain more than 10% supertype and 5% promiscuous epitopes of HLA-A, -B, or -DR. We anticipate that T-cell immune responses against asexual blood stages of Plasmodium are dispersed on a relatively large number of parasite antigens. This is the first report, to the best of our knowledge, offering new insights, at the proteome level, for the putative screening of effective vaccine candidates against the malaria pathogen. The findings also suggest new ways forward for the modern omics-guided vaccine target discovery using reverse vaccinology.

scholarly journals Immunoinformatics Approach Identified Two Highly Conserved B and T Cell Epitopes, LEASKRWAF and DSPLEASKRWAFRTG, for Effective Vaccine Design against Ebola and Marburg Viruses

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Md. Shahadat Hossain ◽  
Hasan Al. Reza ◽  
Mohammad Shahnoor Hossain
Keyword(s):  
T Cell ◽  
Mhc Class Ii ◽  
Simulation Analysis ◽  
Cell Epitope ◽  
Epitope Prediction ◽  
Docking Simulation ◽  
Hemorrhagic Fever ◽  
Effective Vaccine ◽  
T Cell Epitopes ◽  
Mhc Molecules

Aims: Ebola and Marburg viruses cause fatal hemorrhagic fever in both human and non-human primates. Absence of any licensed vaccine has further deteriorated the problem. In the present study, we aimed to design potential epitope based vaccines against these viruses using computational approaches. Methodology: By using various bioinformatics tools and databases, we analyzed the conserved glycoprotein sequences of Ebola and Marburg viruses and predicted two potential epitopes which may be used as peptide vaccines. Results: Using various B-cell and T-cell epitope prediction servers, four highly conserved epitopes were identified. Epitope conservancy analysis showed that  “LEASKRWAF” and “DSPLEASKRWAFRTG” epitopes were 100% and 93.62% conserved and the worldwide population coverage of “LEASKRWAF” interacting with MHC class I molecules and “DSPLEASKRWAFRTG” interacting with MHC class II molecules were 78.74% and 75.75% respectively. Immunoinformatics analysis showed that they are highly immunogenic, flexible and accessible to antibody. Molecular docking simulation analysis demonstrated a very significant interaction between epitopes and MHC molecules with lower binding energy. Cytotoxic analysis and ADMET test also supported their potential as vaccine candidates. Conclusion: In sum, our in silico approach demonstrated that both “LEASKRWAF” and “DSPLEASKRWAFRTG” hold the promise for the development of common vaccine against Ebola and Marburg viruses.

scholarly journals EPIPOX: Immunoinformatic Characterization of the Shared T-Cell Epitome between Variola Virus and Related Pathogenic Orthopoxviruses

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Molero-Abraham ◽  
John-Paul Glutting ◽  
Darren R. Flower ◽  
Esther M. Lafuente ◽  
Pedro A. Reche
Keyword(s):  
T Cell ◽  
Cell Epitope ◽  
Epitope Prediction ◽  
Variola Virus ◽  
T Cell Epitopes ◽  
Membrane Structures ◽  
Class Ii Mhc ◽  
Vaccinia Viruses ◽  
Virus Genomes

Concerns that variola viruses might be used as bioweapons have renewed the interest in developing new and safer smallpox vaccines. Variola virus genomes are now widely available, allowing computational characterization of the entire T-cell epitome and the use of such information to develop safe and yet effective vaccines. To this end, we identified 124 proteins shared between various species of pathogenic orthopoxviruses including variola minor and major, monkeypox, cowpox, and vaccinia viruses, and we targeted them for T-cell epitope prediction. We recognized 8,106, and 8,483 unique class I and class II MHC-restricted T-cell epitopes that are shared by all mentioned orthopoxviruses. Subsequently, we developed an immunological resource, EPIPOX, upon the predicted T-cell epitome. EPIPOX is freely available online and it has been designed to facilitate reverse vaccinology. Thus, EPIPOX includes key epitope-focused protein annotations: time point expression, presence of leader and transmembrane signals, and known location on outer membrane structures of the infective viruses. These features can be used to select specific T-cell epitopes suitable for experimental validation restricted by single MHC alleles, as combinations thereof, or by MHC supertypes.

scholarly journals A T-Cell Epitope-Based Multi-Epitope Vaccine Designed Using Human HLA Specific T Cell Epitopes Induces a Near-Sterile Immunity against Experimental Visceral Leishmaniasis in Hamsters

Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 1058
Author(s):  
Aryandra Arya ◽  
Sunil K. Arora
Keyword(s):  
T Cell ◽  
Visceral Leishmaniasis ◽  
Leishmania Donovani ◽  
Mononuclear Cells ◽  
Human Peripheral Blood ◽  
Cell Epitope ◽  
Effective Vaccine ◽  
T Cell Epitope ◽  
Hamster Model ◽  
Vaccine Candidates

Visceral leishmaniasis is a neglected tropical disease affecting 12 million people annually. Even in the second decade of the 21st century, it has remained without an effective vaccine for human use. In the current study, we designed three multiepitope vaccine candidates by the selection of multiple IFN-γ inducing MHC-I and MHC-II binder T-cell specific epitopes from three previously identified antigen genes of Leishmania donovani from our lab by an immuno-informatic approach using IFNepitope, the Immune Epitope Database (IEDB) T cell epitope identification tools, NET-MHC-1, and NET MHC-2 webservers. We tested the protective potential of these three multiepitope proteins as a vaccine in a hamster model of visceral leishmaniasis. The immunization data revealed that the vaccine candidates induced a very high level of Th1 biased protective immune response in-vivo in a hamster model of experimental visceral leishmaniasis, with one of the candidates inducing a near-sterile immunity. The vaccinated animals displayed highly activated monocyte macrophages with the capability of clearing intracellular parasites due to increased respiratory burst. Additionally, these proteins induced activation of polyfunctional T cells secreting INF-γ, TNF-α, and IL-2 in an ex-vivo stimulation of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells, further supporting the protective nature of the designed candidates.

scholarly journals A T-Cell Epitope-Based Multi-Epitope Vaccine Designed Using Human HLA Specific T Cell Epitopes Induces Sterile Immunity against Experimental Visceral Leishmaniasis in Hamsters

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aryandra Arya ◽  
Sunil K Arora
Keyword(s):  
T Cell ◽  
Visceral Leishmaniasis ◽  
Leishmania Donovani ◽  
Mononuclear Cells ◽  
Ex Vivo ◽  
Human Peripheral Blood ◽  
Cell Epitope ◽  
Effective Vaccine ◽  
Hamster Model ◽  
Vaccine Candidates

Visceral Leishmaniasis is a neglected tropical disease affecting 12 million people annually. Even in the second decade of the 21st century, it has remained without an effective vaccine for human use. In the current study, we have designed three multiepitope vaccine candidates by the selection of multiple IFN-γ inducing MHC-I and MHC-II binder T-cell specific epitopes from 3 previously identified antigen genes of Leishmania donovani from our lab, by immune-informatic approach using IFNepiotpe, NET-MHC-1 and NET MHC-2 webservers. We have tested the protective potential of these three multiepitope proteins as vaccine in a hamster model of visceral leishmaniasis. The immunization data revealed that the vaccine candidates induced a very high level of Th-1 biased protective immune response in-vivo in a hamster model of experimental visceral Leishmaniasis, with one of the candidates inducing a sterile immunity. The vaccinated animals displayed highly activated monocyte macrophages with the capability of clearing intracellular parasites due to increased respiratory burst. Additionally, these proteins induced activation of polyfunctional T cells secreting INF-γ, TNF-α, and IL-2 in ex-vivo stimulation of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells, further supporting the protective nature of designed candidates.

scholarly journals Identification of a Promiscuous T-Cell Epitope in Mycobacterium tuberculosis Mce Proteins

2002 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maddalena Panigada ◽  
Tiziana Sturniolo ◽  
Giorgio Besozzi ◽  
Maria Giovanna Boccieri ◽  
Francesco Sinigaglia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mycobacterium Tuberculosis ◽  
T Cell ◽  
Cell Epitope ◽  
Epitope Prediction ◽  
T Cell Epitope ◽  
T Cell Epitopes ◽  
Cell Responses ◽  
Hla Dr

ABSTRACT The characterization of Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigens inducing CD4+ T-cell responses could critically contribute to the development of subunit vaccines for M. tuberculosis. Here we performed computational analysis by using T-cell epitope prediction software (known as TEPITOPE) to predict promiscuous HLA-DR ligands in the products of the mce genes of M. tuberculosis. The analysis of the proliferative responses of CD4+ T cells from patients with pulmonary tuberculosis to selected peptides displaying promiscuous binding to HLA-DR in vitro led us to the identification of a peptide that induced proliferation of CD4+ cells from 50% of the tested subjects. This study demonstrates that a systematic computational approach can be used to identify T-cell epitopes in proteins expressed by an intracellular pathogen.

scholarly journals Screening and characterization of hypothetical proteins of Plasmodium falciparum as novel vaccine candidates in the fight against malaria using reverse vaccinology

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Aguttu ◽  
Brenda Apio Okech ◽  
Ambrose Mukisa ◽  
George William Lubega
Keyword(s):  
Plasmodium Falciparum ◽  
Protective Efficacy ◽  
Cell Epitope ◽  
Extracellular Proteins ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Reverse Vaccinology ◽  
Effective Vaccine ◽  
Hypothetical Proteins ◽  
Uncharacterized Protein ◽  
Vaccine Candidates

Abstract Background Plasmodium falciparum is the most deadly and leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Africa. About 90% of all malaria deaths in the world today occur in Sub-Saharan Africa especially in children aged < 5 years. In 2018, it was reported that there were 228 million malaria cases that resulted in 405,000 deaths from 91 countries. Currently, a fully effective and long-lasting preventive malaria vaccine is still elusive therefore more effort is needed to identify better effective vaccine candidates. The aim of this study was to identify and characterize hypothetical proteins as vaccine candidates derived from Plasmodium falciparum 3D7 genome by reverse vaccinology. Results Of the 23 selected hypothetical proteins, 5 were predicted on the extracellular localization by WoLFPSORTv.2.0 program and all the 5 had less than 2 transmembrane regions that were predicted by TMHMMv2.0 and HMMTOP programs at default settings. Two out of the five proteins lacked secretory signal peptides as predicted by SignalP program. Among the 5 extracellular proteins, 3 were predicted to be antigenic by VaxiJen (score ≥ 0.5) and had negative GRAVY values ranging from − 1.156 to − 0.440. B cell epitope prediction by ABCpred and BCpred programs revealed a total of 15 antigenic epitopes. A total of 13 cytotoxic T cells were predicted from the 3 proteins using CTLPred online server. Only 2 out of the 13 CTL were antigenic, immunogenic, non-allergenic, and non-toxic using VaxiJen, IEDB, AllergenFp, and Toxinpred servers respectively in that order. Five HTL peptides from XP_001351030.1 protein are predicted inducers of all the three cytokines. STRING protein–protein network analysis of HPs revealed XP_001350955.1 closely interacts with nucleoside diphosphate kinase (PF13-0349) at 0.704, XP_001351030.1 interacts with male development protein1 (Mdv-1) at 0.645, and XP_001351047.1 with an uncharacterized protein (MAL8P1.53) at 0.400. Conclusion Reverse vaccinology is a promising strategy for the screening and identification of antigenic antigens with potential capacity to elicit cellular and humoral immune responses against P. falciparum infection. In this study, potential vaccine candidates of Plasmodium falciparum were identified and screened using standard bioinformatics tools. The vaccine candidates contained antigenic and immunogenic epitopes which could be considered for novel and effective vaccine targets. However, we strongly recommend in vivo and in vitro experiments to validate their immunogenicity and protective efficacy to completely decipher the vaccine targets against malaria.

scholarly journals CD4+ Th immunogenicity of the Ascaris spp. secreted products

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Friederike Ebner ◽  
Eliot Morrison ◽  
Miriam Bertazzon ◽  
Ankur Midha ◽  
Susanne Hartmann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cell ◽  
Antigen Processing ◽  
Cell Epitope ◽  
Processing System ◽  
Healthy Human ◽  
Major Health Problem ◽  
Major Health ◽  
T Cell Lines

SummaryAscaris spp. is a major health problem of humans and animals alike, and understanding the immunogenicity of its antigens is required for developing urgently needed vaccines. The parasite-secreted products represent the most relevant, yet highly complex (>250 proteins) antigens of Ascaris spp. as defining the pathogen-host interplay. We applied an in vitro antigen processing system coupled to quantitative proteomics to identify potential CD4+ Th cell epitopes in Ascaris suum-secreted products. This approach restricts the theoretical list of epitopes, based on affinity prediction, by a factor of ∼1200. More importantly, selection of 2 candidate peptides based on experimental evidence demonstrated the presence of epitope-reactive T cells in Ascaris-specific T cell lines generated from healthy human individuals. Thus, this stringent work pipeline identifies a human haplotype-specific T cell epitope of a major human pathogen. The methodology described represents an easily adaptable platform for characterization of highly complex pathogenic antigens and their MHCII-restriction.

scholarly journals INeo-Epp: A novel T-cell HLA class-I immunogenicity or neoantigenic epitope prediction method based on sequence related amino acid features

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guangzhi Wang ◽  
Huihui Wan ◽  
Xingxing Jian ◽  
Yuyu Li ◽  
Jian Ouyang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acid ◽  
T Cell ◽  
Antigen Processing ◽  
External Validation ◽  
Cell Epitope ◽  
Epitope Prediction ◽  
Validation Data ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Immunogenic Peptide ◽  
Related Amino Acid

AbstractIn silico T-cell epitope prediction plays an important role in immunization experimental design and vaccine preparation. Currently, most epitope prediction research focuses on peptide processing and presentation, e.g. proteasomal cleavage, transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP) and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) combination. To date, however, the mechanism for immunogenicity of epitopes remains unclear. It is generally agreed upon that T-cell immunogenicity may be influenced by the foreignness, accessibility, molecular weight, molecular structure, molecular conformation, chemical properties and physical properties of target peptides to different degrees. In this work, we tried to combine these factors. Firstly, we collected significant experimental HLA-I T-cell immunogenic peptide data, as well as the potential immunogenic amino acid properties. Several characteristics were extracted, including amino acid physicochemical property of epitope sequence, peptide entropy, eluted ligand likelihood percentile rank (EL rank(%)) score and frequency score for immunogenic peptide. Subsequently, a random forest classifier for T cell immunogenic HLA-I presenting antigen epitopes and neoantigens was constructed. The classification results for the antigen epitopes outperformed the previous research (the optimal AUC=0.81, external validation data set AUC=0.77). As mutational epitopes generated by the coding region contain only the alterations of one or two amino acids, we assume that these characteristics might also be applied to the classification of the endogenic mutational neoepitopes also called ‘neoantigens’. Based on mutation information and sequence related amino acid characteristics, a prediction model of neoantigen was established as well (the optimal AUC=0.78). Further, an easy-to-use web-based tool ‘INeo-Epp’ was developed (available at http://www.biostatistics.online/INeo-Epp/neoantigen.php)for the prediction of human immunogenic antigen epitopes and neoantigen epitopes.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document