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Kashif M, Waseem M, Subbarao N. In silico prediction of CD8 + and CD4 + T cell epitopes in Leishmania major proteome: Using immunoinformatics. J Mol Graph Model 2024; 129:108759. [PMID: 38492406 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmgm.2024.108759] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2023] [Revised: 02/12/2024] [Accepted: 03/11/2024] [Indexed: 03/18/2024]
Abstract
The leishmaniases are NDTs (neglected tropical diseases) that affect people all over the world. They are brought on by protozoans from the genus Leishmania and disseminated by phlebotomine flies that are afflicted with the disease. The best option to manage and lower the incidence of these diseases has been thought by the creation of a safe and effective vaccination. This research used an in silico based mining approach to look for high potential epitopes that might bind to MHC Class I and MHC Class II molecules (mainly; HLA-A*02:01 & HLA-DRB1*03:01) from human population in order to promote vaccine development. Based on the presence of signal peptides, GPI anchors, antigenicity predictions, and a subtractive proteomic technique, we have screened 17 putative antigenic proteins from the 8083 total proteins of L. major. After that thorough immunogenic epitope prediction were done using IEDB-AR tools. We isolated five immunogenic epitopes (three 9-mer & two 15-mer) from five antigenic proteins through docking and MD simulation analysis. Finally, these five anticipated epitopes, viz., TLPEIPVNV, ELMAPVFGL, TLAAAVALL, NSINIRLDGVTSAGF and NVPLVVDASSLFRVA have considerably stronger binding potential with their respective alleles and may trigger immunological responses. The goal of this work was to identify MHC restricted epitopes for CD8+ and CD4+ T cells activation using immunoinformatics in order to identify potential vaccine candidates against L. major parasites.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohammad Kashif
- School of Computational and Integrative Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 110067, India.
| | - Mohd Waseem
- School of Computational and Integrative Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 110067, India
| | - Naidu Subbarao
- School of Computational and Integrative Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 110067, India
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Qousain Naqvi ST, Muhammad SA, Guo J, Zafar S, Ali A, Anderson LJ, Rostad CA, Bai B. Experimental trials of predicted CD4 + and CD8 + T-cell epitopes of respiratory syncytial virus. Front Immunol 2024; 15:1349749. [PMID: 38629077 PMCID: PMC11018974 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1349749] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2023] [Accepted: 03/11/2024] [Indexed: 04/19/2024] Open
Abstract
Background Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most common cause of viral lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) in young children around the world and an important cause of LRTI in the elderly. The available treatments and FDA-approved vaccines for RSV only lessen the severity of the infection and are recommended for infants and elderly people. Methods We focused on developing a broad-spectrum vaccine that activates the immune system to directly combat RSV. The objective of this study is to identify CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell epitopes using an immunoinformatics approach to develop RSV vaccines. The efficacy of these peptides was validated through in-vitro and in-vivo studies involving healthy and diseased animal models. Results For each major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class-I and II, we found three epitopes of RSV proteins including F, G, and SH with an antigenic score of >0.5 and a projected SVM score of <5. Experimental validation of these peptides on female BALB/c mice was conducted before and after infection with the RSV A2 line 19f. We found that the 3RVMHCI (CD8+) epitope of the F protein showed significant results of white blood cells (19.72 × 103 cells/μl), neutrophils (6.01 × 103 cells/μl), lymphocytes (12.98 × 103 cells/μl), IgG antibodies (36.9 µg/ml), IFN-γ (86.96 ng/L), and granzyme B (691.35 pg/ml) compared to control at the second booster dose of 10 µg. Similarly, 4RVMHCII (CD4+) of the F protein substantially induced white blood cells (27.08 × 103 cells/μl), neutrophils (6.58 × 103 cells/μl), lymphocytes (16.64 × 103 cells/μl), IgG antibodies (46.13 µg/ml), IFN-γ (96.45 ng/L), and granzyme B (675.09 pg/ml). In-vitro studies showed that 4RVMHCII produced a significant level of antibodies in sera on day 45 comparable to mice infected with the virus. 4RVMHCII also induced high IFN-γ and IL-2 secretions on the fourth day of the challenge compared to the preinfectional stage. Conclusion In conclusion, epitopes of the F protein showed considerable immune response and are suitable for further validation.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Syed Aun Muhammad
- Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan
| | - Jinlei Guo
- School of Intelligent Medical Engineering, Sanquan College of Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, Henan, China
| | - Sidra Zafar
- Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan
| | - Amjad Ali
- Atta-ur-Rehman School of Applied Biosciences (ASAB), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan
| | - Larry J. Anderson
- Department of Pediatrics and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States
| | - Christina A. Rostad
- Department of Pediatrics and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States
| | - Baogang Bai
- School of Information and Technology, Wenzhou Business College, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China
- Engineering Research Center of Intelligent Medicine, Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, China
- The First School of Medical, School of Information and Engineering, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China
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Alawam AS, Alwethaynani MS. Construction of an aerolysin-based multi-epitope vaccine against Aeromonas hydrophila: an in silico machine learning and artificial intelligence-supported approach. Front Immunol 2024; 15:1369890. [PMID: 38495891 PMCID: PMC10940347 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1369890] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2024] [Accepted: 02/14/2024] [Indexed: 03/19/2024] Open
Abstract
Aeromonas hydrophila, a gram-negative coccobacillus bacterium, can cause various infections in humans, including septic arthritis, diarrhea (traveler's diarrhea), gastroenteritis, skin and wound infections, meningitis, fulminating septicemia, enterocolitis, peritonitis, and endocarditis. It frequently occurs in aquatic environments and readily contacts humans, leading to high infection rates. This bacterium has exhibited resistance to numerous commercial antibiotics, and no vaccine has yet been developed. Aiming to combat the alarmingly high infection rate, this study utilizes in silico techniques to design a multi-epitope vaccine (MEV) candidate against this bacterium based on its aerolysin toxin, which is the most toxic and highly conserved virulence factor among the Aeromonas species. After retrieval, aerolysin was processed for B-cell and T-cell epitope mapping. Once filtered for toxicity, antigenicity, allergenicity, and solubility, the chosen epitopes were combined with an adjuvant and specific linkers to create a vaccine construct. These linkers and the adjuvant enhance the MEV's ability to elicit robust immune responses. Analyses of the predicted and improved vaccine structure revealed that 75.5%, 19.8%, and 1.3% of its amino acids occupy the most favored, additional allowed, and generously allowed regions, respectively, while its ERRAT score reached nearly 70%. Docking simulations showed the MEV exhibiting the highest interaction and binding energies (-1,023.4 kcal/mol, -923.2 kcal/mol, and -988.3 kcal/mol) with TLR-4, MHC-I, and MHC-II receptors. Further molecular dynamics simulations demonstrated the docked complexes' remarkable stability and maximum interactions, i.e., uniform RMSD, fluctuated RMSF, and lowest binding net energy. In silico models also predict the vaccine will stimulate a variety of immunological pathways following administration. These analyses suggest the vaccine's efficacy in inducing robust immune responses against A. hydrophila. With high solubility and no predicted allergic responses or toxicity, it appears safe for administration in both healthy and A. hydrophila-infected individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Abdullah S. Alawam
- Department of Biology, College of Science, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| | - Maher S. Alwethaynani
- Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Shaqra University, Al-Quwayiyah, Saudi Arabia
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Fatima I, Alshabrmi FM, Aziz T, Alamri AS, Alhomrani M, Alghamdi S, Alghuraybi RA, Babalghith AO, Bamagous GA, Alhindi Z, Dablool AS, Alhhazmi AA, Alruways MW. Revolutionizing and identifying novel drug targets in Citrobacter koseri via subtractive proteomics and development of a multi-epitope vaccine using reverse vaccinology and immuno-informatics. J Biomol Struct Dyn 2024:1-14. [PMID: 38407210 DOI: 10.1080/07391102.2024.2316762] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2023] [Accepted: 02/04/2024] [Indexed: 02/27/2024]
Abstract
Citrobacter koseri is a gram-negative rod that has been linked to infections in people with significant comorbidities and immunocompromised immune systems. It is most commonly known to cause urinary tract infections. Thus, the development of an efficacious C. koseri vaccine is imperative, as the pathogen has acquired resistance to current antibiotics. Subtractive proteomics was employed during this research to identify potential antigenic proteins to design an effective vaccine against C. koseri. The pipeline identified two antigenic proteins as potential vaccine targets: DP-3-O-acyl-N-acetylglucosamine deacetylase and Arabinose 5-phosphate isomerase. B and T cell epitopes from the specific proteins were forecasted employing several immunoinformatic and bioinformatics resources. A vaccine was created using a combination of seven cytotoxic T cell lymphocytes (CTL), five helper T cell lymphocyte (HTL), and seven linear B cell lymphocyte (LBL) epitopes. An adjuvant (β-defensin) was added to the vaccine to enhance immunological responses. The created vaccine was stable for use in humans, highly antigenic, and non-allergenic. The vaccine's molecular and interactions binding affinity with the human immunological receptor TLR3 were studied using MMGBSA, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, and molecular docking analyses. E. coli (strain-K12) plasmid vector pET-28a (+) was used to examine the ability of the vaccine to be expressed. The vaccine shows great promise in terms of developing protective immunity against diseases, based on the results of these computer experiments. However, in vitro and animal research are required to validate our findings.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Israr Fatima
- Department of Bioinformatics, College of Life Science, Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, Yangling, China
| | - Fahad M Alshabrmi
- Department of Medical Laboratories, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Qassim University, Buraydah, Saudi Arabia
| | - Tariq Aziz
- Laboratory of Animal Health, Food Hygiene, and Quality, Department of Agriculture, University of Ioannina, Arta, Greece
| | - Abdulhakeem S Alamri
- Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, The Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia
| | - Majid Alhomrani
- Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, The Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia
| | - Saad Alghamdi
- Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
| | - Reem Ahmad Alghuraybi
- Laboratory and Blood Bank Department, Alnoor Specialist Hospital, Ministry of Health Makkah, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
| | - Ahmad O Babalghith
- Medical Genetics Department College of Medicine Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
| | - Ghazi A Bamagous
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
| | - Zain Alhindi
- Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
| | - Anas S Dablool
- Public health Department, Health Sciences College at Al-Leith، Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
| | - Areej A Alhhazmi
- Medical Laboratories Technology Department, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Taibah University, Medina, Saudi Arabia
| | - Mashael W Alruways
- Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, The Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Shaqra University, Shaqra, Saudi Arabia
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Hurtado-Morillas C, Martínez-Rodrigo A, Orden JA, de Urbina-Fuentes L, Mas A, Domínguez-Bernal G. Enhancing Control of Leishmania infantum Infection: A Multi-Epitope Nanovaccine for Durable T-Cell Immunity. Animals (Basel) 2024; 14:605. [PMID: 38396573 PMCID: PMC10886062 DOI: 10.3390/ani14040605] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/26/2023] [Revised: 02/02/2024] [Accepted: 02/10/2024] [Indexed: 02/25/2024] Open
Abstract
Canine leishmaniosis (CanL) is a growing health problem for which vaccination is a crucial tool for the control of disease. The successful development of an effective vaccine against this disease relies on eliciting a robust and enduring T-cell immune response involving the activation of CD4+ Th1 and CD8+ T-cells. This study aimed to evaluate the immunogenicity and prophylactic efficacy of a novel nanovaccine comprising a multi-epitope peptide, known as HisDTC, encapsulated in PLGA nanoparticles against Leishmania infantum infection in the murine model. The encapsulation strategy was designed to enhance antigen loading and sustain release, ensuring prolonged exposure to the immune system. Our results showed that mice immunized with PLGA-encapsulated HisDTC exhibited a significant reduction in the parasite load in the liver and spleen over both short and long-term duration. This reduction was associated with a cellular immune profile marked by elevated levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as IFN-γ, and the generation of memory T cells. In conclusion, the current study establishes that PLGA-encapsulated HisDTC can promote effective and long-lasting T-cell responses against L. infantum in the murine model. These findings underscore the potential utility of multi-epitope vaccines, in conjunction with appropriate delivery systems, as an alternative strategy for CanL control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Clara Hurtado-Morillas
- INMIVET, Animal Health Department, School of Veterinary Medicine, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain; (C.H.-M.)
| | - Abel Martínez-Rodrigo
- INMIVET, Animal Science Department, School of Veterinary Medicine, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
- Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal, Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CISA-INIA-CSIC), 28130 Madrid, Spain
| | - José A. Orden
- INMIVET, Animal Health Department, School of Veterinary Medicine, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain; (C.H.-M.)
| | - Laura de Urbina-Fuentes
- INMIVET, Animal Health Department, School of Veterinary Medicine, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain; (C.H.-M.)
| | - Alicia Mas
- INMIVET, Animal Health Department, School of Veterinary Medicine, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain; (C.H.-M.)
| | - Gustavo Domínguez-Bernal
- INMIVET, Animal Health Department, School of Veterinary Medicine, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain; (C.H.-M.)
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6
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Dikhit MR, Sen A. Elucidation of conserved multi-epitope vaccine against Leishmania donovani using reverse vaccinology. J Biomol Struct Dyn 2024; 42:1293-1306. [PMID: 37054523 DOI: 10.1080/07391102.2023.2201630] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2022] [Accepted: 03/29/2023] [Indexed: 04/15/2023]
Abstract
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a tropical disease that causes severe public health problems in humans when untreated. As no licensed vaccine exists against VL, we aimed to formulate a potential MHC-restricted chimeric vaccine construct against this dreadful parasitic disease. Amastin-like protein derived from L. donovani is considered to be stable, immunogenic and non-allergic. A comprehensive established framework was used to explore the set of immunogenic epitopes with estimated population coverage of 96.08% worldwide. The rigorous assessment revealed 6 promiscuous T-epitopes which can plausibly be presented by more than 66 diverse HLA alleles. Further docking and simulation study of peptide receptor complexes identified a strong and stable binding interaction with better structural compactness. The predicted epitopes were combined with appropriate linkers and adjuvant molecules and their translation efficiency was evaluated in pET28+(a), an bacterial expression vector using in-silico cloning. Molecular docking followed by MD simulation study revealed a stable interaction between chimeric vaccine construct with TLRs. Immune simulation of the chimeric vaccine constructs showed an elevated Th1 immune response against both B and T epitopes. With this, the detailed computational analysis suggested that the chimeric vaccine construct can evoke a robust immune response against Leishmania donovani infection. Future studies are required to validate the role of amastin as a promising vaccine target.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manas Ranjan Dikhit
- Department of Molecular Biology, ICMR-Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, India
| | - Abhik Sen
- Department of Molecular Biology, ICMR-Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, India
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Kumar P, Kumar P, Shrivastava A, Dar MA, Lokhande KB, Singh N, Singh A, Velayutham R, Mandal D. Immunoinformatics-based multi-epitope containing fused polypeptide vaccine design against visceral leishmaniasis with high immunogenicity and TLR binding. Int J Biol Macromol 2023; 253:127567. [PMID: 37866569 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.127567] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2023] [Revised: 10/16/2023] [Accepted: 10/18/2023] [Indexed: 10/24/2023]
Abstract
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is the most lethal among all leishmaniasis diseases and remains categorized as a neglected tropical disease (NTD). This study aimed to develop a peptide-based multi-epitope vaccine construct against VL using immunoinformatics methodologies. To achieve this, four distinct proteins were screened to identify peptides consisting of 9-15 amino acids with high binding affinity to toll-like receptors (TLRs), strong antigenicity, low allergenicity, and minimal toxicity. The resulting multi-epitope vaccine construct was fused in a tandem arrangement with appropriate linker peptides and exhibited superior properties related to cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), helper T lymphocytes (HTLs), and B-cell epitopes. Subsequently, a three-dimensional (3D) model of the vaccine construct was generated, refined, and validated for structural stability and immune response capabilities. Molecular docking and simulations confirmed the vaccine construct's stability and binding affinities with TLRs, with TLR4 displaying the highest binding affinity, followed by TLR2 and TLR3. Additionally, simulations predicted robust cellular and humoral antibody-mediated immune responses elicited by the designed vaccine construct. Notably, this vaccine construct includes proteins from various pathways of Leishmania donovani (LD), which have not been previously utilized in VL vaccine design. Thus, this study opens new avenues for the development of vaccines against diverse protozoan diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pawan Kumar
- Department of Biotechnology, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) Hajipur-Vaishali, Bihar 844102, India
| | - Prakash Kumar
- Department of Biotechnology, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) Hajipur-Vaishali, Bihar 844102, India
| | - Ashish Shrivastava
- Translational Bioinformatics and Computational Genomics Research Lab, Department of Life Sciences, Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence, Gautam Buddha Nagar, UP, India
| | - Mukhtar Ahmad Dar
- Department of Pharmacy Practice, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) Hajipur-Vaishali, Bihar 844102, India
| | - Kiran Bharat Lokhande
- Translational Bioinformatics and Computational Genomics Research Lab, Department of Life Sciences, Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence, Gautam Buddha Nagar, UP, India
| | - Nidhi Singh
- Department of Biotechnology, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) Ahmedabad, India
| | - Ashutosh Singh
- Translational Bioinformatics and Computational Genomics Research Lab, Department of Life Sciences, Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence, Gautam Buddha Nagar, UP, India
| | - Ravichandiran Velayutham
- Department of Biotechnology, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) Hajipur-Vaishali, Bihar 844102, India; National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) Kolkata, India
| | - Debabrata Mandal
- Department of Biotechnology, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) Hajipur-Vaishali, Bihar 844102, India.
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Almanaa TN. Design of a novel multi-epitopes vaccine against Escherichia fergusonii: a pan-proteome based in- silico approach. Front Immunol 2023; 14:1332378. [PMID: 38143752 PMCID: PMC10739491 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1332378] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2023] [Accepted: 11/23/2023] [Indexed: 12/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Escherichia fergusonii a gram-negative rod-shaped bacterium in the Enterobacteriaceae family, infect humans, causing serious illnesses such as urinary tract infection, cystitis, biliary tract infection, pneumonia, meningitis, hemolytic uremic syndrome, and death. Initially treatable with penicillin, antibiotic misuse led to evolving resistance, including resistance to colistin, a last-resort drug. With no licensed vaccine, the study aimed to design a multi-epitope vaccine against E. fergusonii. The study started with the retrieval of the complete proteome of all known strains and proceeded to filter the surface exposed virulent proteins. Seventeen virulent proteins (4 extracellular, 4 outer membranes, 9 periplasmic) with desirable physicochemical properties were identified from the complete proteome of known strains. Further, these proteins were processed for B-cell and T-cell epitope mapping. Obtained epitopes were evaluated for antigenicity, allergenicity, solubility, MHC-binding, and toxicity and the filtered epitopes were fused by specific linkers and an adjuvant into a vaccine construct. Structure of the vaccine candidate was predicted and refined resulting in 78.1% amino acids in allowed regions and VERIFY3D score of 81%. Vaccine construct was docked with TLR-4, MHC-I, and MHC-II, showing binding energies of -1040.8 kcal/mol, -871.4 kcal/mol, and -1154.6 kcal/mol and maximum interactions. Further, molecular dynamic simulation of the docked complexes was carried out resulting in a significant stable nature of the docked complexes (high B-factor and deformability values, lower Eigen and high variance values) in terms of intermolecular binding conformation and interactions. The vaccine was also reported to stimulate a variety of immunological pathways after administration. In short, the designed vaccine revealed promising predictions about its immune protective potential against E. fergusonii infections however experimental validation is needed to validate the results.
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Affiliation(s)
- Taghreed N. Almanaa
- Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
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Alsubaiyel AM, Bukhari SI. Computational exploration and design of a multi-epitopes vaccine construct against Chlamydia psittaci. J Biomol Struct Dyn 2023:1-17. [PMID: 37897717 DOI: 10.1080/07391102.2023.2268173] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2023] [Accepted: 09/29/2023] [Indexed: 10/30/2023]
Abstract
Chlamydia psittaci is an intracellular pathogen and causes variety of deadly infections in humans. Antibiotics are effective against C. psittaci however high percentage of resistant strains have been reported in recent times. As there is no licensed vaccine, we used in-silico techniques to design a multi-epitopes vaccine against C. psittaci. Following a step-wise protocol, the proteome of available 26 strains was retrieved and filtered for subcellular localized proteins. Five proteins were selected (2 extracellular and 3 outer membrane) and were further analyzed for B-cell and T-cell epitopes prediction. Epitopes were further checked for antigenicity, solubility, stability, toxigenicity, allergenicity, and adhesive properties. Filtered epitopes were linked via linkers and the 3D structure of the designed vaccine construct was predicted. Binding of the designed vaccine with immune receptors: MHC-I, MHC-II, and TLR-4 was analyzed, which resulted in docking energy scores of -4.37 kcal/mol, -0.20 kcal/mol and -22.38 kcal/mol, respectively. Further, the docked complexes showed stable dynamics with a maximum value of vaccine-MHC-I complex (7.8 Å), vaccine-MHC-II complex (6.2 Å) and vaccine-TLR4 complex (5.2 Å). As per the results, the designed vaccine construct reported robust immune responses to protect the host against C. psittaci infections. In the study, the C. psittaci proteomes were considered in pan-genome analysis to extract core proteins. The pan-genome analysis was conducted using bacterial pan-genome analysis (BPGA) software. The core proteins were checked further for non-redundant proteins using a CD-Hit server. Surface localized proteins were investigated using PSORTb v 3.0. The surface proteins were BLASTp against Virulence Factor Data Base (VFDB) to predict virulent factors. Antigenicity prediction of the shortlisted proteins was further done using VAXIGEN v 2.0. The epitope mapping was done using the immune epitope database (IEDB). A multi-epitopes vaccine was built and a 3D structure was generated using 3Dprot online server. The docking analysis of the designed vaccine with immune receptors was carried out using PATCHDOCK. Molecular dynamics and post-simulation analyses were carried out using AMBER v20 to decipher the dynamics stability and intermolecular binding energies of the docked complexes.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amal M Alsubaiyel
- Department of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy, Qassim University, Buraydah, Saudi Arabia
| | - Sarah I Bukhari
- Department of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
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Agallou M, Margaroni M, Karagouni E. Intramuscular Immunization with a Liposomal Multi-Epitope Chimeric Protein Induces Strong Cellular Immune Responses against Visceral Leishmaniasis. Vaccines (Basel) 2023; 11:1384. [PMID: 37631952 PMCID: PMC10459177 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines11081384] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2023] [Revised: 08/01/2023] [Accepted: 08/16/2023] [Indexed: 08/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Control of the intracellular parasite Leishmania (L.) requires the activation of strong type 1 cellular immune responses. Towards this goal, in the present study, a multiepitope chimeric protein named LiChimera was encapsulated into cationic liposomes and its protective efficacy against experimental visceral leishmaniasis was investigated. Liposomal LiChimera conferred significant protection against L. infantum as evidenced by the significantly reduced parasite loads in the spleen and liver. Protection detected in Lipo:LiChimera-immunized mice was dependent on the differentiation of long-lasting cellular immune responses and particularly the induction of antigen-specific multifunctional memory CD4+ TH1 and CD8+ T cells that persisted during infection, as evidenced by the persistent high production of IFN-γ and IL-2 and proliferation activity. Notably, protected mice were also characterized by significantly low numbers of non-regulatory CD4+ T cells able to co-produce IFN-γ and IL-10, an important population for disease establishment, as compared to non-immunized control group. Collectively, these results demonstrate that cationic liposomes containing LiChimera can be considered an effective candidate vaccine against visceral leishmaniasis.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Evdokia Karagouni
- Immunology of Infection Group, Department of Microbiology, Hellenic Pasteur Institute, 115 21 Athens, Greece; (M.A.); (M.M.)
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Ferreira-Sena EP, Hardoim DDJ, Cardoso FDO, d'Escoffier LN, Soares IF, Carvalho JPRDS, Angnes RA, Fragoso SP, Alves CR, De-Simone SG, Lima-Junior JDC, Bertho AL, Zaverucha-do-Valle T, da Silva FS, Calabrese KDS. A New Strategy for Mapping Epitopes of LACK and PEPCK Proteins of Leishmania amazonensis Specific for Major Histocompatibility Complex Class I. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:ijms24065972. [PMID: 36983046 PMCID: PMC10054446 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24065972] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/27/2022] [Revised: 01/07/2023] [Accepted: 01/10/2023] [Indexed: 03/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Leishmaniasis represents a complex of diseases with a broad clinical spectrum and epidemiological diversity, considered a major public health problem. Although there is treatment, there are still no vaccines for cutaneous leishmaniasis. Because Leishmania spp. is an intracellular protozoan with several escape mechanisms, a vaccine must provoke cellular and humoral immune responses. Previously, we identified the Leishmania homolog of receptors for activated C kinase (LACK) and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) proteins as strong immunogens and candidates for the development of a vaccine strategy. The present work focuses on the in silico prediction and characterization of antigenic epitopes that might interact with mice or human major histocompatibility complex class I. After immunogenicity prediction on the Immune Epitope Database (IEDB) and the Database of MHC Ligands and Peptide Motifs (SYFPEITHI), 26 peptides were selected for interaction assays with infected mouse lymphocytes by flow cytometry and ELISpot. This strategy identified nine antigenic peptides (pL1-H2, pPL3-H2, pL10-HLA, pP13-H2, pP14-H2, pP15-H2, pP16-H2, pP17-H2, pP18-H2, pP26-HLA), which are strong candidates for developing a peptide vaccine against leishmaniasis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edlainne Pinheiro Ferreira-Sena
- Laboratório de Imunomodulação e Protozoologia, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro 21040-360, RJ, Brazil
| | - Daiana de Jesus Hardoim
- Laboratório de Imunomodulação e Protozoologia, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro 21040-360, RJ, Brazil
| | - Flavia de Oliveira Cardoso
- Laboratório de Imunomodulação e Protozoologia, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro 21040-360, RJ, Brazil
| | - Luiz Ney d'Escoffier
- Laboratório de Imunomodulação e Protozoologia, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro 21040-360, RJ, Brazil
| | - Isabela Ferreira Soares
- Laboratório de Imunoparasitologia, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro 21040-360, RJ, Brazil
| | - João Pedro Rangel da Silva Carvalho
- Laboratório de Bioquímica de Proteínas e Peptídeos, Centro de Desenvolvimento Tecnológico em Saúde, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro 21040-360, RJ, Brazil
| | - Ricardo Almir Angnes
- Laboratório de Síntese Química, Instituto de Biologia Molecular do Paraná, Curitiba 81350-010, PR, Brazil
| | - Stenio Perdigão Fragoso
- Laboratório de Biologia Molecular e Sistêmica de Tripanossomatídeos, Instituto Carlos Chagas, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Curitiba 81350-010, PR, Brazil
| | - Carlos Roberto Alves
- Laboratório de Biologia Molecular e Doenças Endêmicas, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro 21040-360, RJ, Brazil
| | - Salvatore Giovanni De-Simone
- Center for Technological Development in Health (CDTS)/National Institute of Science and Technology for Innovation in Diseases of Neglected Populations (INCT-IDPN), Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ), Rio de Janeiro 21040-900, RJ, Brazil
- Laboratory of Epidemiology and Molecular Systematics (LESM), Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ), Rio de Janeiro 21040-900, RJ, Brazil
- Post-Graduation Program in Science and Biotechnology, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Biology Institute, Federal Fluminense University, Niterói 22040-036, RJ, Brazil
| | - Josué da Costa Lima-Junior
- Laboratório de Imunoparasitologia, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro 21040-360, RJ, Brazil
| | - Alvaro Luiz Bertho
- Laboratório de Imunoparasitologia, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro 21040-360, RJ, Brazil
- Plataforma de Citometria, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro 21040-360, RJ, Brazil
| | - Tânia Zaverucha-do-Valle
- Laboratório de Imunomodulação e Protozoologia, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro 21040-360, RJ, Brazil
| | - Franklin Souza da Silva
- Centro de Desenvolvimento Tecnológico em Saúde, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro 21040-360, RJ, Brazil
- Faculdade de Biologia e Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Iguaçu, Dom Rodrigo, Nova Iguaçu, Rio de Janeiro 26275-580, RJ, Brazil
| | - Kátia da Silva Calabrese
- Laboratório de Imunomodulação e Protozoologia, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro 21040-360, RJ, Brazil
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12
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Ismail M, Bai B, Guo J, Bai Y, Sajid Z, Muhammad SA, Shaikh RS. Experimental Validation of MHC Class I and II Peptide-Based Potential Vaccine Candidates for Human Papilloma Virus Using Sprague-Dawly Models. Molecules 2023; 28:1687. [PMID: 36838675 PMCID: PMC9968051 DOI: 10.3390/molecules28041687] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2022] [Revised: 01/09/2023] [Accepted: 02/01/2023] [Indexed: 02/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Human papilloma virus (HPV) causes cervical and many other cancers. Recent trend in vaccine design is shifted toward epitope-based developments that are more specific, safe, and easy to produce. In this study, we predicted eight immunogenic peptides of CD4+ and CD8+ T-lymphocytes (MHC class I and II as M1 and M2) including early proteins (E2 and E6), major (L1) and minor capsid protein (L2). Male and female Sprague Dawly rats in groups were immunized with each synthetic peptide. L1M1, L1M2, L2M1, and L2M2 induced significant immunogenic response compared to E2M1, E2M2, E6M1 and E6M2. We observed optimal titer of IgG antibodies (>1.25 g/L), interferon-γ (>64 ng/L), and granzyme-B (>40 pg/mL) compared to control at second booster dose (240 µg/500 µL). The induction of peptide-specific IgG antibodies in immunized rats indicates the T-cell dependent B-lymphocyte activation. A substantial CD4+ and CD8+ cell count was observed at 240 µg/500 µL. In male and female rats, CD8+ cell count for L1 and L2 peptide is 3000 and 3118, and CD4+ is 3369 and 3484 respectively compared to control. In conclusion, we demonstrated that L1M1, L1M2, L2M1, L2M2 are likely to contain potential epitopes for induction of immune responses supporting the feasibility of peptide-based vaccine development for HPV.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mehreen Ismail
- Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, Pakistan
| | - Baogang Bai
- School of Information and Technology, Wenzhou Business College, Wenzhou 325015, China
- Engineering Research Center of Intelligent Medicine, Wenzhou 325000, China
- The 1st School of Medical, School of Information and Engineering, The 1st Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325015, China
| | - Jinlei Guo
- School of Medical Engineering, Sanquan College of Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang 453513, China
| | - Yuhui Bai
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Zureesha Sajid
- Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, Pakistan
| | - Syed Aun Muhammad
- Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, Pakistan
| | - Rehan Sadiq Shaikh
- Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, Pakistan
- Centre for Applied Molecular Biology, University of the Punjab, Lahore 54000, Pakistan
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Design of a Chimeric Multi-Epitope Vaccine (CMEV) against Both Leishmania martiniquensis and Leishmania orientalis Parasites Using Immunoinformatic Approaches. BIOLOGY 2022; 11:biology11101460. [PMID: 36290364 PMCID: PMC9598663 DOI: 10.3390/biology11101460] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2022] [Revised: 09/21/2022] [Accepted: 09/30/2022] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease caused by protozoan flagellates of the genus Leishmania. Recently, Leishmania martiniquensis and Leishmania orientalis, emerging species of Leishmania, were isolated from patients in Thailand. Development of the vaccine is demanded; however, genetic differences between the two species make it difficult to design a vaccine that is effective for both species. In this study, we applied immuno-informatic approaches to design a chimeric multi-epitope vaccine (CMEV) against both L. martiniquensis and L. orientalis. We identified seven helper T lymphocyte (HTL) epitopes, sixteen cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes, and eleven B-cell epitopes from sixteen conserved antigenic proteins found in both species. All these epitopes were joined together, and to further enhance immunogenicity, protein and peptides adjuvant were also added at the N-terminal of the molecule by using specific linkers. The candidate CMEV was subsequently analyzed from the perspectives of the antigenicity, allergenicity, and physiochemical properties. The interaction of the designed multi-epitope vaccine and immune receptor (TLR4) of the host were evaluated based on molecular dockings of the predicted 3D structures. Finally, in silico cloning was performed to construct the expression vaccine vector. Docking analysis showed that the vaccine/TLR4 complex took a stable form. Based on the predicted immunogenicity, physicochemical, and structural properties in silico, the vaccine candidate was expected to be appropriately expressed in bacterial expression systems and show the potential to induce a host immune response. This study proposes the experimental validation of the efficacy of the candidate vaccine construct against the two Leishmania.
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14
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Karim M, Singh G, Thakur S, Rana A, Rub A, Akhter Y. Evaluating complete surface-associated and secretory proteome of Leishmania donovani for discovering novel vaccines and diagnostic targets. Arch Microbiol 2022; 204:604. [PMID: 36069945 DOI: 10.1007/s00203-022-03219-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2021] [Revised: 08/20/2022] [Accepted: 08/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
The protozoa Leishmania donovani causes visceral leishmaniasis (kala-azar), the third most common vector-borne disease. The visceral organs, particularly the spleen, liver, and bone marrow, are affected by the disease. The lack of effective treatment regimens makes curing and eradicating the disease difficult. The availability of complete L. donovani genome/proteome data allows for the development of specific and efficient vaccine candidates using the reverse vaccinology method, while utilizing the unique sequential and structural features of potential antigenic proteins to induce protective T cell and B cell responses. Such shortlisted candidates may then be tested quickly for their efficacy in the laboratory and later in clinical settings. These antigens will also be useful for designing antigen-based next-generation sero-diagnostic assays. L. donovani's cell surface-associated proteins and secretory proteins are among the first interacting entities to be exposed to the host immune machinery. As a result, potential antigenic epitope peptides derived from these proteins could serve as competent vaccine components. We used a stepwise filtering-based in silico approach to identify the entire surface-associated and secretory proteome of L. donovani, which may provide rationally selected most exposed antigenic proteins. Our study identified 12 glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored proteins, 45 transmembrane helix-containing proteins, and 73 secretory proteins as potent antigens unique to L. donovani. In addition, we used immunoinformatics to identify B and T cell epitopes in them. Out of the shortlisted surface-associated and secretory proteome, 66 protein targets were found to have the most potential overlapping B cell and T cell epitopes (linear and conformational; MHC class I and MHC class II).
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Affiliation(s)
- Munawwar Karim
- School of Life Sciences, Central University of Himachal Pradesh, District-Kangra, Shahpur, Himachal Pradesh, 176206, India
| | - Garima Singh
- Department of Biotechnology, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Vidya Vihar, Raebareli Road, Lucknow, 226025, India
| | - Shweta Thakur
- School of Life Sciences, Central University of Himachal Pradesh, District-Kangra, Shahpur, Himachal Pradesh, 176206, India
| | - Aarti Rana
- School of Life Sciences, Central University of Himachal Pradesh, District-Kangra, Shahpur, Himachal Pradesh, 176206, India
| | - Abdur Rub
- Infection and Immunity Lab, Department of Biotechnology, Jamia Millia Islamia (A Central University), New Delhi, 110025, India
| | - Yusuf Akhter
- Department of Biotechnology, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Vidya Vihar, Raebareli Road, Lucknow, 226025, India.
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15
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Altamirano-Samaniego F, Enciso-Benavides J, Rojas N, Iglesias-Pedraz JM, Enciso N, Fossatti M, Enciso J. First report of canine morbillivirus infection of adipose tissue-derived stem cells from dogs with distemper. Vet World 2022; 15:1835-1842. [PMID: 36185532 PMCID: PMC9394121 DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2022.1835-1842] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2022] [Accepted: 06/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Background and Aim: Ribonucleic acid viruses remain latent in different cell types, including mesenchymal stem cells; however, the distemper virus remains undetected in these cells. This study aimed to determine whether adipose stem cells (ASCs) from dogs with distemper disease are infected with the canine morbillivirus (CM). Materials and Methods: Twelve dogs with the neurological phase of the disease and who were positive for CM by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), were studied. ASCs from adipose tissue of the lesser omentum of these infected dogs were isolated and characterized. Direct fluorescence was used to detect the viral antigen in cell cultures. Flow cytometry and RT-PCR identified detectable quantities of the virus in two cultures, while electron microscopy confirmed the CM particles within ASCs. Results: This study revealed that ASCs of the omentum of dogs with distemper disease can be infected with CM, indicating their possible involvement in this virus latency and persistence. This suggests that its detection should be considered within the quality control process of stem cells intended for regenerative medicine. Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that demonstrates that omentum ASCs from dogs with distemper disease can be infected with CM and may be involved in viral latency or persistence. Our study also suggests that the detection of CM should be considered within the quality control process of stem cells intended for regenerative medicine.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Nancy Rojas
- Laboratorio de Microscopía Electrónica, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Perú
| | | | - Nathaly Enciso
- Grupo de Medicina Regenerativa, Universidad Científica del Sur, Lima, Perú
| | - Matia Fossatti
- Laboratorio de Bioquímica y Genética Molecular, Universidad Científica del Sur, Lima, Perú
| | - Javier Enciso
- Grupo de Medicina Regenerativa, Universidad Científica del Sur, Lima, Perú
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16
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Machado AS, Lage DP, Vale DL, Freitas CS, Linhares FP, Cardoso JM, Pereira IA, Ramos FF, Tavares GS, Ludolf F, Oliveira-da-Silva JA, Bandeira RS, Simões AC, Duarte MC, Oliveira JS, Christodoulides M, Chávez-Fumagalli MA, Roatt BM, Martins VT, Coelho EA. A recombinant Leishmania amastigote-specific protein, rLiHyG, with adjuvants, protects against infection with Leishmania infantum. Acta Trop 2022; 230:106412. [PMID: 35305943 DOI: 10.1016/j.actatropica.2022.106412] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2021] [Revised: 03/14/2022] [Accepted: 03/15/2022] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Vaccination against visceral leishmaniasis (VL) should be considered as a control measure to protect against disease, and amastigote-specific proteins could help to develop such vaccines, since this parasite form is in contact with the host immune system during the active disease. In this study, a Leishmania amastigote-specific protein, LiHyG, was evaluated as recombinant protein (rLiHyG) as vaccine candidate against Leishmania infantum infection in BALB/c mice. The protein was associated with saponin (rLiHyG/Sap) or Poloxamer 407-based polymeric micelles (rLiHyG/Mic) as adjuvants, and animals receiving saline, saponin or micelle as controls. Immunological and parasitological analyses were performed before (n = 8 per group; as primary endpoint) and after (n = 8 per group; as secondary endpoint) infection. Results showed that, in both endpoints, rLiHyG/Sap and rLiHyG/Mic induced higher levels of IFN-γ, IL-12 and GM-CSF in spleen cell cultures from vaccinated animals, besides elevated presence of IgG2a isotype antibodies. Decreased hepatotoxicity and 'positive lymphoproliferative response were also found after challenge. Such findings reflected in significantly lower levels of parasite load found in their spleens, livers, bone marrows and draining lymph nodes. In conclusion, rLiHyG associated with Th1-type adjuvant could be considered for future studies as vaccine candidate to protect against VL.
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Experimental Study of Potential CD8+ Trivalent Synthetic Peptides for Liver Cancer Vaccine Development Using Sprague Dawley Rat Models. BIOMED RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL 2022; 2022:4792374. [PMID: 35686237 PMCID: PMC9173915 DOI: 10.1155/2022/4792374] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2021] [Revised: 05/02/2022] [Accepted: 05/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Background. Liver cancer (LC) is the most devastating disease affecting a large set of populations in the world. The mortality due to LC is escalating, indicating the lack of effective therapeutic options. Immunotherapeutic agents may play an important role against cancer cells. As immune cells, especially T lymphocytes, which are part of cancer immunology, the design of vaccine candidates for cytotoxic T lymphocytes may be an effective strategy for curing liver cancer. Results. In our study, based on an immunoinformatics approach, we predicted potential T cell epitopes of MHC class I molecules using integrated steps of data retrieval, screening of antigenic proteins, functional analysis, peptide synthesis, and experimental in vivo investigations. We predicted the binding affinity of epitopes LLECADDRADLAKY, VSEHRIQDKDGLFY, and EYILSLEELVNGMY of LC membrane-bounded extracellular proteins including butyrophilin-like protein-2 (BTNL2), glypican-3 (GPC3), and serum albumin (ALB), respectively, with MHC class I molecules (allele: HLA-A
01:01). These T cell epitopes rely on the level of their binding energy and antigenic properties. We designed and constructed a trivalent immunogenic model by conjugating these epitopes with linkers to activate cytotoxic T cells. For validation, the nonspecific hematological assays showed a significant rise in the count of white blood cells (
), lymphocytes (
), and granulocytes (
) compared to the control after administration of trivalent peptides. Specific immunoassays including granzyme B and IgG ELISA exhibited the significant concentration of these effector molecules in blood serum, indicating the activity of cytotoxic T cells. Granzyme concentration increased to 1050 pg/ml at the second booster dose compared to the control (95 pg/ml), while the concentration of IgG raised to 6 g/l compared to the control (2 g/l). Conclusion. We concluded that a potential therapeutic trivalent vaccine can activate and modulate the immune system to cure liver cancer on the basis of significant outcomes of specific and nonspecific assays.
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Shah I, Jamil S, Rehmat S, Butt HA, Ali SS, Idrees M, Zhan Y, Hussain Z, Ali S, Waseem M, Iqbal A, Ahmad S, Khan A, Wang Y, Wei DQ. Evaluation and identification of essential therapeutic proteins and vaccinomics approach towards multi-epitopes vaccine designing against Legionella pneumophila for immune response instigation. Comput Biol Med 2022; 143:105291. [PMID: 35180498 DOI: 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2022.105291] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/02/2022] [Revised: 01/20/2022] [Accepted: 01/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
The Legionellaceae group comprises the Legionella, containing 58 species with 70 serotypes. For instance, Legionella pneumophila is the deadliest serotype to cause Legionnaires infectious and is responsible for 90% of the infections in humans. The bacterial pathogen is associated with a severe lung infection, known as legionaries' disease. It is resistant to multiple drugs, thus warranting novel vaccine candidates identification to immune the host against infections caused by the said pathogen. For this, we applied the subtractive proteomics and reverse vaccinology approaches to annotate the most essential genes suitable for vaccine designing. From the whole proteome, only five proteins (Q5ZVG4, Q5ZRZ1, Q5ZWE6, Q5ZT09, and Q5ZUZ8) as the best targets for further processing as they fulfill all the standard parameters set for in silico vaccine design. Immuno-informatics approaches were further applied to the selected protein sequences to prioritized antigenic epitopes for design a multi-epitope subunit vaccine. A multi-epitopes vaccine was designed by using suitable linkers to link the CTL (cytotoxic T lymphocytes), HTL (Helper T lymphocytes), B cell epitopes, and adjuvant to strengthen the vaccine's immunogenicity. The MEVC(multi-epitopes vaccine construct) was reported to interact with human immune receptor TLR-2 (toll-like receptor) robustly (docking score = -357.18 kcal/mol), and a higher expression was achieved in the Escherichia coli system (CAI = 0.88, and GC contents = 54.34%). Moreover, immune simulation revealed that on the 3rd day, the neutralization of the antigen started, while on the 5th day, the antigen was completely neutralized by the secreted immune factors. In conclusion, the designed vaccine candidate effectively triggered the immune response against eh pathogen; however, wet lab-based experimentations are highly recommended to prove the protective immunological proficiency of the vaccine against L. pneumophila.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ismail Shah
- Center for Biotechnology and Microbiology, University of Swat, Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
| | | | - Saira Rehmat
- Sharif Medical and Dental College, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
| | | | - Syed Shujait Ali
- Center for Biotechnology and Microbiology, University of Swat, Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
| | - Muhammad Idrees
- Center for Biotechnology and Microbiology, University of Swat, Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
| | | | - Zahid Hussain
- Center for Biotechnology and Microbiology, University of Swat, Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
| | - Shahid Ali
- Center for Biotechnology and Microbiology, University of Swat, Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
| | - Muhammad Waseem
- Faculty of Rehabilitation and Allied Health Science, Riphah International University, Islamabad, Pakistan
| | - Arshad Iqbal
- Center for Biotechnology and Microbiology, University of Swat, Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
| | - Sajjad Ahmad
- Department of Health and Biological Sciences, Abasyn University, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
| | - Abbas Khan
- Department of Bioinformatics and Biological Statistics, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, PR China
| | - Yanjing Wang
- Engineering Research Center of Cell and Therapeutics Antibody, School of Pharmacy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, PR China.
| | - Dong-Qing Wei
- Department of Bioinformatics and Biological Statistics, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, PR China; State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, Shanghai-Islamabad-Belgrade Joint Innovation Center on Antibacterial Resistances, Joint Laboratory of International Cooperation in Metabolic and Developmental Sciences, Ministry of Education and School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200030, PR China; Peng Cheng Laboratory, Vanke Cloud City Phase I Building 8, Xili Street, Nashan District, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518055, PR China.
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Machado AS, Martins VT, Humbert MV, Christodoulides M, Coelho EAF. In Silico Design of Recombinant Chimera T Cell Peptide Epitope Vaccines for Visceral Leishmaniasis. Methods Mol Biol 2022; 2410:463-480. [PMID: 34914063 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1884-4_24] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a neglected tropical disease caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania. Systemic VL is fatal if untreated and there are no prophylactic human vaccines available. Several studies suggest that Th1 cell-mediated immunity plays a major role in protecting against VL. In this chapter we describe a method for designing recombinant chimera vaccines in silico based on the prediction of T cell epitopes within protein antigens identified as potential protective immunogens. Development of a recombinant chimera protein (RCP) vaccine using T cell epitope peptides identified from four Leishmania proteins is used as an exemplar of this method.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amanda Sanchez Machado
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde: Infectologia e Medicina Tropical, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Vivian Tamietti Martins
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde: Infectologia e Medicina Tropical, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Maria Victoria Humbert
- Neisseria Research Group, Molecular Microbiology, School of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Southampton Faculty of Medicine, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, England, UK
| | - Myron Christodoulides
- Neisseria Research Group, Molecular Microbiology, School of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Southampton Faculty of Medicine, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, England, UK.
| | - Eduardo Antonio Ferraz Coelho
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde: Infectologia e Medicina Tropical, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
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20
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Sami SA, Marma KKS, Mahmud S, Khan MAN, Albogami S, El-Shehawi AM, Rakib A, Chakraborty A, Mohiuddin M, Dhama K, Uddin MMN, Hossain MK, Tallei TE, Emran TB. Designing of a Multi-epitope Vaccine against the Structural Proteins of Marburg Virus Exploiting the Immunoinformatics Approach. ACS OMEGA 2021; 6:32043-32071. [PMID: 34870027 PMCID: PMC8638006 DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.1c04817] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2021] [Accepted: 11/10/2021] [Indexed: 05/08/2023]
Abstract
Marburg virus disease (MVD) caused by the Marburg virus (MARV) generally appears with flu-like symptoms and leads to severe hemorrhagic fever. It spreads via direct contact with infected individuals or animals. Despite being considered to be less threatening in terms of appearances and the number of infected patients, the high fatality rate of this pathogenic virus is a major concern. Until now, no vaccine has been developed to combat this deadly virus. Therefore, vaccination for this virus is necessary to reduce its mortality. Our current investigation focuses on the design and formulation of a multi-epitope vaccine based on the structural proteins of MARV employing immunoinformatics approaches. The screening of potential T-cell and B-cell epitopes from the seven structural proteins of MARV was carried out through specific selection parameters. Afterward, we compiled the shortlisted epitopes by attaching them to an appropriate adjuvant and linkers. Population coverage analysis, conservancy analysis, and MHC cluster analysis of the shortlisted epitopes were satisfactory. Importantly, physicochemical characteristics, human homology assessment, and structure validation of the vaccine construct delineated convenient outcomes. We implemented disulfide bond engineering to stabilize the tertiary or quaternary interactions. Furthermore, stability and physical movements of the vaccine protein were explored using normal-mode analysis. The immune simulation study of the vaccine complexes also exhibited significant results. Additionally, the protein-protein docking and molecular dynamics simulation of the final construct exhibited a higher affinity toward toll-like receptor-4 (TLR4). From simulation trajectories, multiple descriptors, namely, root mean square deviations (rmsd), radius of gyration (Rg), root mean square fluctuations (RMSF), solvent-accessible surface area (SASA), and hydrogen bonds, have been taken into account to demonstrate the inflexible and rigid nature of receptor molecules and the constructed vaccine. Inclusively, our findings suggested the vaccine constructs' ability to regulate promising immune responses against MARV pathogenesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Saad Ahmed Sami
- Department of Pharmacy,
Faculty of Biological Sciences, University
of Chittagong, Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh
| | - Kay Kay Shain Marma
- Department of Pharmacy,
Faculty of Biological Sciences, University
of Chittagong, Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh
| | - Shafi Mahmud
- Microbiology
Laboratory, Bioinformatics Division, Department of Genetic Engineering
and Biotechnology, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi 6205, Bangladesh
| | - Md. Asif Nadim Khan
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular
Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Chittagong, Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh
| | - Sarah Albogami
- Department
of Biotechnology, College of Science, Taif
University, P.O. Box 11099, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia
| | - Ahmed M. El-Shehawi
- Department
of Biotechnology, College of Science, Taif
University, P.O. Box 11099, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia
| | - Ahmed Rakib
- Department of Pharmacy,
Faculty of Biological Sciences, University
of Chittagong, Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh
| | - Agnila Chakraborty
- Department of Pharmacy,
Faculty of Biological Sciences, University
of Chittagong, Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh
| | - Mostafah Mohiuddin
- Department of Pharmacy,
Faculty of Biological Sciences, University
of Chittagong, Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh
| | - Kuldeep Dhama
- Division of Pathology, ICAR-Indian Veterinary
Research Institute, Izatnagar, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh 243122, India
| | - Mir Muhammad Nasir Uddin
- Department of Pharmacy,
Faculty of Biological Sciences, University
of Chittagong, Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh
| | - Mohammed Kamrul Hossain
- Department of Pharmacy,
Faculty of Biological Sciences, University
of Chittagong, Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh
| | - Trina Ekawati Tallei
- Department of Biology,
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Sam Ratulangi University, Manado, North Sulawesi 95115, Indonesia
| | - Talha Bin Emran
- Department of Pharmacy, BGC Trust University Bangladesh, Chittagong 4381, Bangladesh
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21
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Yu Z, Ding W, Aleem MT, Su J, Liu J, Luo J, Yan R, Xu L, Song X, Li X. Toxoplasma gondii Proteasome Subunit Alpha Type 1 with Chitosan: A Promising Alternative to Traditional Adjuvant. Pharmaceutics 2021; 13:pharmaceutics13050752. [PMID: 34069589 PMCID: PMC8161231 DOI: 10.3390/pharmaceutics13050752] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2021] [Revised: 05/12/2021] [Accepted: 05/18/2021] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
As an important zoonotic protozoan, Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) has spread around the world, leading to infections in one-third of the population. There is still no effective vaccine or medicine against T. gondii, and recombinant antigens entrapped within nanospheres have benefits over traditional vaccines. In the present study, we first expressed and purified T. gondii proteasome subunit alpha type 1 (TgPSA1), then encapsulated the recombinant TgPSA1 (rTgPSA1) in chitosan nanospheres (CS nanospheres, rTgPSA1/CS nanospheres) and incomplete Freund’s adjuvant (IFA, rTgPSA1/IFA emulsion). Antigens entrapped in CS nanospheres reached an encapsulation efficiency of 67.39%, and rTgPSA1/CS nanospheres showed a more stable release profile compared to rTgPSA1/IFA emulsion in vitro. In vivo, Th1-biased cellular and humoral immune responses were induced in mice and chickens immunized with rTgPSA1/CS nanospheres and rTgPSA1/IFA emulsion, accompanied by promoted production of antibodies, IFN-γ, IL-4, and IL-17, and modulated production of IL-10. Immunization with rTgPSA1/CS nanospheres and rTgPSA1/IFA emulsion conferred significant protection, with prolonged survival time in mice and significantly decreased parasite burden in chickens. Furthermore, our results also indicate that rTgPSA1/CS nanospheres could be used as a substitute for rTgPSA1/IFA emulsion, with the optimal administration route being intramuscular in mass vaccination. Collectively, the results of this study indicate that rTgPSA1/CS nanospheres represent a promising vaccine to protect animals against acute toxoplasmosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhengqing Yu
- MOE Joint International Research Laboratory of Animal Health and Food Safety, College of Veterinary Medicine, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210000, China; (Z.Y.); (W.D.); (M.T.A.); (J.S.); (R.Y.); (L.X.); (X.S.)
| | - Wenxi Ding
- MOE Joint International Research Laboratory of Animal Health and Food Safety, College of Veterinary Medicine, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210000, China; (Z.Y.); (W.D.); (M.T.A.); (J.S.); (R.Y.); (L.X.); (X.S.)
| | - Muhammad Tahir Aleem
- MOE Joint International Research Laboratory of Animal Health and Food Safety, College of Veterinary Medicine, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210000, China; (Z.Y.); (W.D.); (M.T.A.); (J.S.); (R.Y.); (L.X.); (X.S.)
| | - Junzhi Su
- MOE Joint International Research Laboratory of Animal Health and Food Safety, College of Veterinary Medicine, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210000, China; (Z.Y.); (W.D.); (M.T.A.); (J.S.); (R.Y.); (L.X.); (X.S.)
| | - Junlong Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitology of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou 730046, China; (J.L.); (J.L.)
| | - Jianxun Luo
- State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitology of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou 730046, China; (J.L.); (J.L.)
| | - Ruofeng Yan
- MOE Joint International Research Laboratory of Animal Health and Food Safety, College of Veterinary Medicine, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210000, China; (Z.Y.); (W.D.); (M.T.A.); (J.S.); (R.Y.); (L.X.); (X.S.)
| | - Lixin Xu
- MOE Joint International Research Laboratory of Animal Health and Food Safety, College of Veterinary Medicine, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210000, China; (Z.Y.); (W.D.); (M.T.A.); (J.S.); (R.Y.); (L.X.); (X.S.)
| | - Xiaokai Song
- MOE Joint International Research Laboratory of Animal Health and Food Safety, College of Veterinary Medicine, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210000, China; (Z.Y.); (W.D.); (M.T.A.); (J.S.); (R.Y.); (L.X.); (X.S.)
| | - Xiangrui Li
- MOE Joint International Research Laboratory of Animal Health and Food Safety, College of Veterinary Medicine, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210000, China; (Z.Y.); (W.D.); (M.T.A.); (J.S.); (R.Y.); (L.X.); (X.S.)
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +86-025-84399000
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22
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Zhang J, He J, Liao X, Xiao Y, Liang C, Zhou Q, Chen H, Zheng Z, Qin H, Chen D, Chen Q, Li J, Chen J. Development of dominant epitope-based vaccines encoding Gp63, Kmp-11 and Amastin against visceral leishmaniasis. Immunobiology 2021; 226:152085. [PMID: 33910113 DOI: 10.1016/j.imbio.2021.152085] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2020] [Revised: 02/11/2021] [Accepted: 03/10/2021] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
The most dangerous form of leishmaniasis is Visceral leishmaniasis (VL). The elimination of VL depends not only on agent treatments but also on effective vaccines against Leishmania parasites. Epitope-based vaccines composed of alternative short antigenic epitopes have the advantages of MHC epitope easy designing, which has broad application prospects. In a previous study, we analyzed Leishmania Gp63, Kmp-11 and Amastin protein sequence in silico, and found that the amino acid fragments of Gp63 (138-360aa), Kmp-11 (1-91aa) and Amastin (1-72aa) were rich in dominant epitopes. In this study, we used the three amino acid fragments as multi-epitope vaccine candidates to construct DNA and protein vaccines. BALB/c mice were vaccinated with the DNA and protein vaccines by DNA prime-protein boost strategy and challenged with Leishmania promastigotes. To evaluate vaccine immunogenicity and immunoprotection, serum specific antibody titers and cytokines were detected using ELISA, splenic CD3+, CD4+ and CD8+ cells were analyzed by flow cytometry, livers were made into pathological sections to observe pathological changes, and splenic parasitic loads were quantified using qPCR. The results showed that the increased specific IgG titers from vaccinated mice supported the vaccine immunogenicity. The increased cytokines (IFN-γ, IL-12 and TNF-α), splenic CD3+, CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and hepatic granulomas, and the decreased splenic parasitic loads (parasite reduction rates of Gp63, Kmp-11 and Amatin groups were 89%, 86% and 79%, respectively) from immunized mice post-infection were suggested the good immunoprotection of the vaccines. Our study demonstrated that vaccines based on the dominant epitopes of Gp63, Kmp-11 and Amastin with DNA prime-protein boost vaccination strategy showed significant immune effects against Leishmania, especially the Gp63 group showed a nearly 90% parasites reduction rate. This study will provide references for visceral leishmaniasis epitope vaccine design and immune strategy selection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jianhui Zhang
- Department of Pathogenic Biology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Jinlei He
- Department of Pathogenic Biology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Xuechun Liao
- Department of Pathogenic Biology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Yuying Xiao
- Department of Pathogenic Biology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Chang Liang
- Department of Gastroenterology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Qi Zhou
- Department of Pathogenic Biology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Han Chen
- Department of Pathogenic Biology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Zhiwan Zheng
- Department of Pathogenic Biology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Hanxiao Qin
- Department of Pathogenic Biology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Dali Chen
- Department of Pathogenic Biology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Qiwei Chen
- Department of Pathogenic Biology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Jiao Li
- Department of Pathogenic Biology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
| | - Jianping Chen
- Department of Pathogenic Biology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China; Animal Disease Prevention and Food Safety Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
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23
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Mahdevar E, Safavi A, Abiri A, Kefayat A, Hejazi SH, Miresmaeili SM, Iranpur Mobarakeh V. Exploring the cancer-testis antigen BORIS to design a novel multi-epitope vaccine against breast cancer based on immunoinformatics approaches. J Biomol Struct Dyn 2021; 40:6363-6380. [PMID: 33599191 DOI: 10.1080/07391102.2021.1883111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
Abstract
Recently, cancer immunotherapy has gained lots of attention to replace the current chemoradiation approaches and multi-epitope cancer vaccines are manifesting as the next generation of cancer immunotherapy. Therefore, in this study, we used multiple immunoinformatics approaches along with other computational approaches to design a novel multi-epitope vaccine against breast cancer. The most immunogenic regions of the BORIS cancer-testis antigen were selected according to the binding affinity to MHC-I and II molecules as well as containing multiple cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes by multiple immunoinformatics servers. The selected regions were linked together by GPGPG linker. Also, a T helper epitope (PADRE) and the TLR-4/MD-2 agonist (L7/L12 ribosomal protein from mycobacterium) were incorporated by A(EAAAK)3A linker to form the final vaccine construct. Then, its physicochemical properties, cleavage sites, TAP transport efficiency, B cell epitopes, IFN-γ inducing epitopes and population coverage were predicted. The final vaccine construct was reverse translated, codon-optimized and inserted into pcDNA3.1 to form the DNA vaccine. The final vaccine construct was a stable, immunogenic and non-allergenic protein that contained numerous CTL epitopes, IFN-γ inducing epitopes and several linear and conformational B cell epitopes. Also, the final vaccine construct formed stable and significant interactions with TLR-4/MD-2 complex according to molecular docking and dynamics simulations. Moreover, its world population coverage for HLA-I and HLA-II were about 93% and 96%, respectively. Taking together, these preliminary results can be used as an appropriate platform for further experimental investigations.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elham Mahdevar
- Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Science and Arts University, Yazd, Iran
| | - Ashkan Safavi
- Department of Biology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Ardavan Abiri
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
| | - Amirhosein Kefayat
- Department of Oncology, Cancer Prevention Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
| | - Seyed Hossein Hejazi
- Department of Parasitology and Mycology, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
| | - Seyed Mohsen Miresmaeili
- Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Science and Arts University, Yazd, Iran
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24
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Shermeh AS, Zahedifard F, Habibzadeh S, Taheri T, Rafati S, Seyed N. Evaluation of protection induced by in vitro maturated BMDCs presenting CD8 + T cell stimulating peptides after a heterologous vaccination regimen in BALB/c model against Leishmania major. Exp Parasitol 2021; 223:108082. [PMID: 33581108 DOI: 10.1016/j.exppara.2021.108082] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2020] [Revised: 01/07/2021] [Accepted: 01/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Leishmaniasis is a complex vector-borne disease mediated by Leishmania parasite and a strong and long-lasting CD4+ Th1 and CD8+-T cell immunity is required to control the infection. Thus far multivalent subunit vaccines have met this requirement more promisingly. However several full protein sequences cannot be easily arranged in one construct. Instead, new emerging immune-informatics based epitope formulations surpass this restriction. Herein, we aimed to examine the protective potential of a dendritic cell based vaccine presenting epitopes to CD8+ and CD4+-T cells in combination with DNA vaccine encoding the same epitopes against murine cutaneous leishmaniasis. Immature DCs were loaded with epitopes (selected from parasite proteome) in vitro with or without CpG oligonucleotides and were used to immunize BALB/c mice. Peptide coding DNA was used to boost the system and immunological responses were evaluated after Leishmania (L.) major infectious challenge. The pre-challenge response to included epitopes was Th1 polarized which potentially lowered the infection at early time points post-challenge but not at later weeks. Collectively, DC prime-DNA boost was found to be a promising approach for Th1 polarization however the constituent epitopes undoubtedly make a significant contribution in the protection outcome of the vaccine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Atefeh Sadeghi Shermeh
- Immunotherapy and Leishmania Vaccine Research Department, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Farnaz Zahedifard
- Immunotherapy and Leishmania Vaccine Research Department, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Sima Habibzadeh
- Immunotherapy and Leishmania Vaccine Research Department, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Tahereh Taheri
- Immunotherapy and Leishmania Vaccine Research Department, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Sima Rafati
- Immunotherapy and Leishmania Vaccine Research Department, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Negar Seyed
- Immunotherapy and Leishmania Vaccine Research Department, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran.
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25
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Arana-Argáez VE, Ceballos-Góngora E, Alvarez-Sánchez ME, Euan-Canto A, Lara-Riegos J, Torres-Romero JC. In Vitro Activation of Macrophages by an MHC Class II-restricted Trichomonas Vaginalis TvZIP8-derived Synthetic Peptide. Immunol Invest 2020; 51:88-102. [DOI: 10.1080/08820139.2020.1810703] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Emanuel Ceballos-Góngora
- Laboratorio De Farmacología, Facultad De Química, Universidad Autónoma De Yucatán, Mérida, México
- Laboratorio De Bioquímica Y Genética Molecular, Facultad De Química, Universidad Autónoma De Yucatán, Mérida, México
| | | | - Antonio Euan-Canto
- Laboratorio De Bioquímica Y Genética Molecular, Facultad De Química, Universidad Autónoma De Yucatán, Mérida, México
| | - Julio Lara-Riegos
- Laboratorio De Bioquímica Y Genética Molecular, Facultad De Química, Universidad Autónoma De Yucatán, Mérida, México
| | - Julio César Torres-Romero
- Laboratorio De Bioquímica Y Genética Molecular, Facultad De Química, Universidad Autónoma De Yucatán, Mérida, México
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26
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Martínez-Rodrigo A, Mas A, Álvarez-Campos D, Orden JA, Domínguez-Bernal G, Carrión J. Epitope Selection for Fighting Visceral Leishmaniosis: Not All Peptides Function the Same Way. Vaccines (Basel) 2020; 8:E352. [PMID: 32630347 PMCID: PMC7564088 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines8030352] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2020] [Revised: 06/23/2020] [Accepted: 06/25/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Visceral leishmaniosis (VL) caused by Leishmania infantum is a disease with an increasing prevalence worldwide. Treatments are expensive, toxic, and ineffective. Therefore, vaccination seems to be a promising approach to control VL. Peptide-based vaccination is a useful method due to its stability, absence of local side effects, and ease of scaling up. In this context, bioinformatics seems to facilitate the use of peptides, as this analysis can predict high binding affinity epitopes to MHC class I and II molecules of different species. We have recently reported the use of HisAK70 DNA immunization in mice to induce a resistant phenotype against L. major, L. infantum, and L. amazonensis infections. In the present study, we used bioinformatics tools to select promising multiepitope peptides (HisDTC and AK) from the polyprotein encoded in the HisAK70 DNA to evaluate their immunogenicity in the murine model of VL by L. infantum. Our results revealed that both multiepitope peptides were able to induce the control of VL in mice. Furthermore, HisDTC was able to induce a better cell-mediated immune response in terms of reduced parasite burden, protective cytokine profile, leishmanicidal enzyme modulation, and specific IgG2a isotype production in immunized mice, before and after infectious challenge. Overall, this study indicates that the HisDTC chimera may be considered a satisfactory tool to control VL because it is able to activate a potent CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell protective immune responses.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Gustavo Domínguez-Bernal
- INMIVET, Departamento de Sanidad Animal, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad Complutense Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain; (A.M.-R.); (A.M.); (D.Á.-C.); (J.A.O.); (J.C.)
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27
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Khan MAA, Ami JQ, Faisal K, Chowdhury R, Ghosh P, Hossain F, Abd El Wahed A, Mondal D. An immunoinformatic approach driven by experimental proteomics: in silico design of a subunit candidate vaccine targeting secretory proteins of Leishmania donovani amastigotes. Parasit Vectors 2020; 13:196. [PMID: 32295617 PMCID: PMC7160903 DOI: 10.1186/s13071-020-04064-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2019] [Accepted: 04/09/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) caused by dimorphic Leishmania species is a parasitic disease with high socioeconomic burden in endemic areas worldwide. Sustaining control of VL in terms of proper and prevailing immunity development is a global necessity amid unavailability of a prophylactic vaccine. Screening of experimental proteome of the human disease propagating form of Leishmania donovani (amastigote) can be more pragmatic for in silico mining of novel vaccine candidates. Methods By using an immunoinformatic approach, CD4+ and CD8+ T cell-specific epitopes from experimentally reported L. donovani proteins having secretory potential and increased abundance in amastigotes were screened. A chimera linked with a Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) peptide adjuvant was constructed and evaluated for physicochemical characteristics, binding interaction with TLR4 in simulated physiological condition and the trend of immune response following hypothetical immunization. Results Selected epitopes from physiologically important L. donovani proteins were found mostly conserved in L. infantum, covering theoretically more than 98% of the global population. The multi-epitope chimeric vaccine was predicted as stable, antigenic and non-allergenic. Structural analysis of vaccine-TLR4 receptor docked complex and its molecular dynamics simulation suggest sufficiently stable binding interface along with prospect of non-canonical receptor activation. Simulation dynamics of immune response following hypothetical immunization indicate active and memory B as well as CD4+ T cell generation potential, and likely chance of a more Th1 polarized response. Conclusions The methodological approach and results from this study could facilitate more informed screening and selection of candidate antigenic proteins for entry into vaccine production pipeline in future to control human VL.![]()
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Affiliation(s)
- Md Anik Ashfaq Khan
- Nutrition and Clinical Services Division, International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Jenifar Quaiyum Ami
- Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Khaledul Faisal
- Nutrition and Clinical Services Division, International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Rajashree Chowdhury
- Nutrition and Clinical Services Division, International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Prakash Ghosh
- Nutrition and Clinical Services Division, International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Faria Hossain
- Nutrition and Clinical Services Division, International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, 1212, Bangladesh
| | - Ahmed Abd El Wahed
- Microbiology and Animal Hygiene Division, Georg-August-University Goettingen, Burckhardtweg 2, 37077, Göttingen, Germany.
| | - Dinesh Mondal
- Nutrition and Clinical Services Division, International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, 1212, Bangladesh.
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28
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Hamrouni S, Bras-Gonçalves R, Kidar A, Aoun K, Chamakh-Ayari R, Petitdidier E, Messaoudi Y, Pagniez J, Lemesre JL, Meddeb-Garnaoui A. Design of multi-epitope peptides containing HLA class-I and class-II-restricted epitopes derived from immunogenic Leishmania proteins, and evaluation of CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses induced in cured cutaneous leishmaniasis subjects. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2020; 14:e0008093. [PMID: 32176691 PMCID: PMC7098648 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0008093] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2019] [Revised: 03/26/2020] [Accepted: 01/27/2020] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Human leishmaniasis is a public health problem worldwide for which the development of a vaccine remains a challenge. T cell-mediated immune responses are crucial for protection. Peptide vaccines based on the identification of immunodominant T cell epitopes able to induce T cell specific immune responses constitute a promising strategy. Here, we report the identification of human leukocyte antigen class-I (HLA-I) and -II (HLA-II)-restricted multi-epitope peptides from Leishmania proteins that we have previously described as vaccine candidates. Promastigote Surface Antigen (PSA), LmlRAB (L. major large RAB GTPase) and Histone (H2B) were screened, in silico, for T cell epitopes. 6 HLA-I and 5 HLA-II-restricted multi-epitope peptides, able to bind to the most frequent HLA molecules, were designed and used as pools to stimulate PBMCs from individuals with healed cutaneous leishmaniasis. IFN-γ, IL-10, TNF-α and granzyme B (GrB) production was evaluated by ELISA/CBA. The frequency of IFN-γ-producing T cells was quantified by ELISpot. T cells secreting cytokines and memory T cells were analyzed by flow cytometry. 16 of 25 peptide pools containing HLA-I, HLA-II or HLA-I and -II peptides were able to induce specific and significant IFN-γ levels. No IL-10 was detected. 6 peptide pools were selected among those inducing the highest IFN-γ levels for further characterization. 3/6 pools were able to induce a significant increase of the percentages of CD4+IFN-γ+, CD8+IFN-γ+ and CD4+GrB+ T cells. The same pools also induced a significant increase of the percentages of bifunctional IFN-γ+/TNF-α+CD4+ and/or central memory T cells. We identified highly promiscuous HLA-I and -II restricted epitope combinations from H2B, PSA and LmlRAB proteins that stimulate both CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses in recovered individuals. These multi-epitope peptides could be used as potential components of a polytope vaccine for human leishmaniasis. The control of leishmaniasis, a neglected tropical disease of public health importance, caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania, mainly relies on chemotherapy, which is highly toxic. Currently, there is no vaccine against human leishmaniasis. Peptide-based vaccines consisting of T cell epitopes identified within proteins of interest by epitope predictive algorithms are a promising strategy for vaccine development. Here, we identified multi-epitope peptides composed of HLA-I and -II-restricted epitopes, using immunoinformatic tools, within Leishmania proteins previously described as potential vaccine candidates. We showed that multi-epitope peptides used as pools were able to activate IFN-γ producing CD4+ as well as CD8+ T cells, both required for parasite elimination. In addition, granzyme B-producing CD4+ T cells, bifunctional CD4+ IFN-γ+/TNF-α+ and/or TNF-α+/IL-2+ T cells as well as CD4+ and CD8+ central memory T cells, all involved in Leishmania infection control, were significantly increased in response to multi-epitope peptide stimulation. As far as we know, no study has described the detection of both CD4+ and CD8+ T cell populations in response to stimulation by both HLA-I and II-restricted peptides in humans. The immunogenic HLA-I and -II-restricted multi-epitope peptides identified in this study could constitute potential vaccine candidates against human leishmaniasis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarra Hamrouni
- Laboratoire de Parasitologie Médicale, Biotechnologie et Biomolécules, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisie
- Faculté des Sciences de Bizerte, Université de Carthage, Tunis, Tunisie
- UMR INTERTRYP, Université de Montpellier, IRD, CIRAD, Montpellier, France
| | | | | | - Karim Aoun
- Laboratoire de Parasitologie Médicale, Biotechnologie et Biomolécules, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisie
| | - Rym Chamakh-Ayari
- Laboratoire de Parasitologie Médicale, Biotechnologie et Biomolécules, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisie
- Faculté des Sciences de Bizerte, Université de Carthage, Tunis, Tunisie
| | - Elodie Petitdidier
- UMR INTERTRYP, Université de Montpellier, IRD, CIRAD, Montpellier, France
| | - Yasmine Messaoudi
- Laboratoire de Parasitologie Médicale, Biotechnologie et Biomolécules, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisie
- Faculté des Sciences de Bizerte, Université de Carthage, Tunis, Tunisie
- UMR INTERTRYP, Université de Montpellier, IRD, CIRAD, Montpellier, France
| | - Julie Pagniez
- UMR INTERTRYP, Université de Montpellier, IRD, CIRAD, Montpellier, France
| | - Jean-Loup Lemesre
- UMR INTERTRYP, Université de Montpellier, IRD, CIRAD, Montpellier, France
| | - Amel Meddeb-Garnaoui
- Laboratoire de Parasitologie Médicale, Biotechnologie et Biomolécules, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisie
- * E-mail:
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Lohia N, Baranwal M. An Immunoinformatics Approach in Design of Synthetic Peptide Vaccine Against Influenza Virus. Methods Mol Biol 2020; 2131:229-243. [PMID: 32162257 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-0389-5_11] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Peptide-based vaccines are an appealing strategy which involves usage of short synthetic peptides to engineer a highly targeted immune response. These short synthetic peptides contain potential T- and B-cell epitopes. Experimental approaches in identifying these epitopes are time-consuming and expensive; hence immunoinformatics approach came into picture. Immuninformatics approach involves epitope prediction tools, molecular docking, and population coverage analysis in design of desired immunogenic peptides. In order to overcome the antigenic variation of viruses, conserved regions are targeted to find the potential epitopes. The present chapter demonstrates the use of immunoinformatics approach to select potential peptide containing multiple T- (CD8+ and CD4+) and B-cell epitopes from Avian H3N2 M1 Protein. Further, molecular docking (to analyse HLA-peptide interaction) and population coverage analysis have been used to verify the potential of peptide to be presented by polymorphic HLA molecules. In silico approach of epitope prediction has proven to be successful methodology in screening the putative epitopes among numerous possible vaccine targets in a given protein.
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Affiliation(s)
- Neha Lohia
- Department of Biotechnology, Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala, India.
- School of Life Sciences, Jaipur National University, Jaipur, India.
| | - Manoj Baranwal
- Department of Biotechnology, Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala, India
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Ropón-Palacios G, Chenet-Zuta ME, Otazu K, Olivos-Ramirez GE, Camps I. Novel multi-epitope protein containing conserved epitopes from different Leishmania species as potential vaccine candidate: Integrated immunoinformatics and molecular dynamics approach. Comput Biol Chem 2019; 83:107157. [PMID: 31751887 DOI: 10.1016/j.compbiolchem.2019.107157] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2019] [Revised: 10/08/2019] [Accepted: 10/28/2019] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
Leishmaniosis, caused by intracellular parasites of the genus Leishmania, has become a serious public health problem around the world, and for which there are currently extensive limitations. In this work, a theoretical model was proposed for the development of a multi-epitope vaccine. The protein GP63 of the parasite was selected for epitopes prediction, due to its important biological role for the infection process and abundance. IEDB tools were used to determine epitopes B and T in Leishmania braziliensis; besides, other conserved epitopes in three species were selected. To improve immunogenicity, 50S ribosomal protein L7 / L12 (ID: P9WHE3) was used as a domain of adjuvant in the assembly process. The folding arrangement of the vaccine was obtained through homologous modeling multi-template with MODELLER v9.21, and a Ramachandran plot analysis was done. Furthermore, physicochemical properties were described with the ProtParam tool and secondary structure prediction combining GOR-IV and SOPMA tools. Finally, a molecular dynamics simulation (50 ns) was performed to establish flexibility and conformational changes. The analysis of the results indicates high conservancy in the epitopes predicted among the four species. Moreover, Ramachandran plot, physicochemical parameters, and secondary structure prediction suggest a stable conformation of the vaccine, after a minimum conformational change that was evaluated with the free energy landscape. The conformational change does not drive any substantial change for epitope exposition on the surface. The vaccine proposed could be tested experimentally to guide new approaches in the development of pan-vaccines; vaccines with regions conserved in multiple species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Georcki Ropón-Palacios
- Laboratório de Modelagem Computacional - LaModel, Instituto de Ciências Exatas - ICEx, Universidade Federal de Alfenas - UNIFAL-MG, Alfenas Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Manuel E Chenet-Zuta
- Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Avenida Universitaria N°3004 Distrito Federal, Mexico
| | - Kewin Otazu
- Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional del Altiplano, Av. Floral No1153, Puno, Peru
| | - Gustavo E Olivos-Ramirez
- Laboratorio de Evaluación de los Recursos Acuáticos y Cultivo de Especies Auxiliares, Departamento Académico de Biología, Microbiología y Biotecnología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional del Santa, Nuevo Chimbote, Peru
| | - Ihosvany Camps
- Laboratório de Modelagem Computacional - LaModel, Instituto de Ciências Exatas - ICEx, Universidade Federal de Alfenas - UNIFAL-MG, Alfenas Minas Gerais, Brazil.
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Agallou M, Athanasiou E, Kammona O, Tastsoglou S, Hatzigeorgiou AG, Kiparissides C, Karagouni E. Transcriptome Analysis Identifies Immune Markers Related to Visceral Leishmaniasis Establishment in the Experimental Model of BALB/c Mice. Front Immunol 2019; 10:2749. [PMID: 31849951 PMCID: PMC6902045 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2019.02749] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2019] [Accepted: 11/11/2019] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) caused by Leishmania donovani and L. infantum is a potentially fatal disease. To date there are no registered vaccines for disease prevention despite the fact that several vaccines are in preclinical development. Thus, new strategies are needed to improve vaccine efficacy based on a better understanding of the mechanisms mediating protective immunity and mechanisms of host immune responses subversion by immunopathogenic components of Leishmania. We found that mice vaccinated with CPA162−189-loaded p8-PLGA nanoparticles, an experimental nanovaccine, induced the differentiation of antigen-specific CD8+ T cells in spleen compared to control mice, characterized by increased dynamics of proliferation and high amounts of IFN-γ production after ex vivo re-stimulation with CPA162−189 antigen. Vaccination with CPA162−189-loaded p8-PLGA nanoparticles resulted in about 80% lower parasite load in spleen and liver at 4 weeks after challenge with L. infantum promastigotes as compared to control mice. However, 16 weeks after infection the parasite load in spleen was comparable in both mouse groups. Decreased protection levels in vaccinated mice were followed by up-regulation of the anti-inflammatory IL-10 production although at lower levels in comparison to control mice. Microarray analysis in spleen tissue at 4 weeks post challenge revealed different immune-related profiles among the two groups. Specifically, vaccinated mice were characterized by similar profile to naïve mice. On the other hand, the transcriptome of the non-vaccinated mice was dominated by increased expression of genes related to interferon type I, granulocyte chemotaxis, and immune cells suppression. This profile was significantly enriched at 16 weeks post challenge, a time-point which is relative to disease establishment, and was common for both groups, further suggesting that type I signaling and granulocyte influx has a significant role in disease establishment, pathogenesis and eventually in decreased vaccine efficacy for stimulating long-term protection. Overall, we put a spotlight on host immune networks during active VL as potential targets to improve and design more effective vaccines against disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Agallou
- Parasite Immunology Group, Department of Microbiology, Hellenic Pasteur Institute, Athens, Greece
| | - Evita Athanasiou
- Parasite Immunology Group, Department of Microbiology, Hellenic Pasteur Institute, Athens, Greece
| | - Olga Kammona
- Chemical Process & Energy Resources Institute, Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Thessaloniki, Greece
| | - Spyros Tastsoglou
- DIANA-Lab, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece
| | - Artemis G Hatzigeorgiou
- DIANA-Lab, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece.,DIANA-Lab, Hellenic Pasteur Institute, Athens, Greece
| | - Costas Kiparissides
- Chemical Process & Energy Resources Institute, Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Thessaloniki, Greece.,Department of Chemical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
| | - Evdokia Karagouni
- Parasite Immunology Group, Department of Microbiology, Hellenic Pasteur Institute, Athens, Greece
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Synthetic Peptides Elicit Strong Cellular Immunity in Visceral Leishmaniasis Natural Reservoir and Contribute to Long-Lasting Polyfunctional T-Cells in BALB/c Mice. Vaccines (Basel) 2019; 7:vaccines7040162. [PMID: 31661776 PMCID: PMC6963447 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines7040162] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2019] [Revised: 10/17/2019] [Accepted: 10/19/2019] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Reverse vaccinology or immunoinformatics is a computational methodology which integrates data from in silico epitope prediction, associated to other important information as, for example, the predicted subcellular location of the proteins used in the design of the context of vaccine development. This approach has the potential to search for new targets for vaccine development in the predicted proteome of pathogenic organisms. To date, there is no effective vaccine employed in vaccination campaigns against visceral leishmaniasis (VL). For the first time, herein, an in silico, in vitro, and in vivo peptide screening was performed, and immunogenic peptides were selected to constitute VL peptide-based vaccines. Firstly, the screening of in silico potential peptides using dogs naturally infected by L. infantum was conducted and the peptides with the best performance were selected. The mentioned peptides were used to compose Cockt-1 (cocktail 1) and Cockt-2 (cocktail 2) in combination with saponin as the adjuvant. Therefore, tests for immunogenicity, polyfunctional T-cells, and the ability to induce central and effector memory in T-lymphocytes capacity in reducing the parasite load on the spleen for Cockt-1 and Cockt-2 were performed. Among the vaccines under study, Cockt-1 showed the best results, eliciting CD4+ and CD8+ polyfunctional T-cells, with a reduction in spleen parasitism that correlates to the generation of T CD4+ central memory and T CD8+ effector memory cells. In this way, our findings corroborate the use of immunoinformatics as a tool for the development of future vaccines against VL.
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33
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Prasasty VD, Grazzolie K, Rosmalena R, Yazid F, Ivan FX, Sinaga E. Peptide-Based Subunit Vaccine Design of T- and B-Cells Multi-Epitopes against Zika Virus Using Immunoinformatics Approaches. Microorganisms 2019; 7:E226. [PMID: 31370224 PMCID: PMC6722788 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms7080226] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2019] [Revised: 07/15/2019] [Accepted: 07/24/2019] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
The Zika virus disease, also known as Zika fever is an arboviral disease that became epidemic in the Pacific Islands and had spread to 18 territories of the Americas in 2016. Zika virus disease has been linked to several health problems such as microcephaly and the Guillain-Barré syndrome, but to date, there has been no vaccine available for Zika. Problems related to the development of a vaccine include the vaccination target, which covers pregnant women and children, and the antibody dependent enhancement (ADE), which can be caused by non-neutralizing antibodies. The peptide vaccine was chosen as a focus of this study as a safer platform to develop the Zika vaccine. In this study, a collection of Zika proteomes was used to find the best candidates for T- and B-cell epitopes using the immunoinformatics approach. The most promising T-cell epitopes were mapped using the selected human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles, and further molecular docking and dynamics studies showed a good peptide-HLA interaction for the best major histocompatibility complex-II (MHC-II) epitope. The most promising B-cell epitopes include four linear peptides predicted to be cross-reactive with T-cells, and conformational epitopes from two proteins accessible by antibodies in their native biological assembly. It is believed that the use of immunoinformatics methods is a promising strategy against the Zika viral infection in designing an efficacious multiepitope vaccine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vivitri Dewi Prasasty
- Faculty of Biotechnology, Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia, Jakarta 12930, Indonesia.
| | - Karel Grazzolie
- Department of Biology, Faculty of Life Science, Surya University, Tangerang, Banten 15143, Indonesia
| | - Rosmalena Rosmalena
- Department of Medical Chemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Indonesia, Depok 16424, Indonesia
| | - Fatmawaty Yazid
- Department of Medical Chemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Indonesia, Depok 16424, Indonesia
| | - Fransiskus Xaverius Ivan
- Department of Biology, Faculty of Life Science, Surya University, Tangerang, Banten 15143, Indonesia
| | - Ernawati Sinaga
- Faculty of Biology, Universitas Nasional, Jakarta 12520, Indonesia
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Agallou M, Karagouni E. Detection of Antigen-specific T cells in Spleens of Vaccinated Mice Applying 3[H]-Thymidine Incorporation Assay and Luminex Multiple Cytokine Analysis Technology. Bio Protoc 2019; 9:e3252. [PMID: 33654777 DOI: 10.21769/bioprotoc.3252] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2019] [Revised: 04/25/2019] [Accepted: 05/27/2019] [Indexed: 11/02/2022] Open
Abstract
For many infectious diseases T cells are an important part of naturally acquired protective immune responses, and inducing these by vaccination has been the aim of much research. Here, we describe a protocol for the analysis of vaccine-induced antigen-specific immune responses. For this purpose, cells of whole spleens obtained from vaccinated BALB/c mice were ex vivo stimulated with the antigen incorporated in the vaccine. Evaluation and characterization of vaccine-induced adaptive T cell responses was performed by assaying spleen cell proliferation through radioactive 3[H]-thymidine incorporation and multiplex cytokine analysis of IL-2, IFN-γ and TNFα in supernatants from spleen cell suspensions. This protocol can be very useful as a starting point for assessing vaccine-induced memory T cell populations in pre-clinical studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Agallou
- Department of Microbiology, Hellenic Pasteur Institute, Athens, Greece
| | - Evdokia Karagouni
- Department of Microbiology, Hellenic Pasteur Institute, Athens, Greece
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35
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Safavi A, Kefayat A, Abiri A, Mahdevar E, Behnia AH, Ghahremani F. In silico analysis of transmembrane protein 31 (TMEM31) antigen to design novel multiepitope peptide and DNA cancer vaccines against melanoma. Mol Immunol 2019; 112:93-102. [PMID: 31079006 DOI: 10.1016/j.molimm.2019.04.030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2019] [Revised: 04/25/2019] [Accepted: 04/30/2019] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
Multiepitope cancer vaccines are announcing themselves as the future of melanoma treatment. Herein, high immunogenic regions of transmembrane protein 31 (TMEM31) antigen were selected according to cytotoxic T lymphocytes' (CTL) epitopes and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) binding affinity through in silico analyses. The 32-62, 77-105, and 125-165 residues of the TMEM31 were selected as the immunodominant fragments. They were linked together by RVRR and HEYGAEALERAG motifs to improve epitopes separation and presentation. In addition, to activate helper T lymphocytes (HTL), Pan HLA DR-binding epitope (PADRE) peptide sequence and tetanus toxin fragment C (TTFrC) were incorporated into the final construct. Also, the Beta-defensin conserved domain was utilized in the final construct as a novel adjuvant for Toll-like receptor 4/myeloid differentiation factor (TLR4-MD) activation. The CTL epitopes, cleavage sites, post-translational modifications, TAP transport efficiency, and B cells epitopes were predicted for the peptide vaccine. The final construct contained multiple CTL and B cell epitopes. In addition, it showed 93.55% and 99.13% population coverage in the world for HLA I and HLA II, respectively. According to these preliminary results, the multiepitope cancer vaccine can be an appropriate choice for further experimental investigations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ashkan Safavi
- Department of Biology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
| | - Amirhosein Kefayat
- Department of Oncology, Cancer Prevention Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
| | - Ardavan Abiri
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
| | - Elham Mahdevar
- Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Science and Arts University, Yazd, Iran
| | - Amir Hossein Behnia
- Department of Biology, Faculty of the Basic Sciences, Shahrekord Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahrekord, Iran
| | - Fatemeh Ghahremani
- Department of Medical Physics and Radiotherapy, Arak University of Medical Sciences, Arak, Iran
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Nosrati M, Behbahani M, Mohabatkar H. Towards the first multi-epitope recombinant vaccine against Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus: A computer-aided vaccine design approach. J Biomed Inform 2019; 93:103160. [PMID: 30928513 PMCID: PMC7106074 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbi.2019.103160] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2018] [Revised: 03/17/2019] [Accepted: 03/27/2019] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is considered one of the major public health concerns with case fatality rates of up to 80%. Currently, there is no effective approved vaccine for CCHF. In this study, we used a computer-aided vaccine design approach to develop the first multi-epitope recombinant vaccine for CCHF. For this purpose, linear B-cell and T-cell binding epitopes from two structural glycoproteins of CCHF virus including Gc and Gn were predicted. The epitopes were further studied regarding their antigenicity, allergenicity, hydrophobicity, stability, toxicity and population coverage. A total number of seven epitopes including five T-cell and two B-cell epitopes were screened for the final vaccine construct. Final vaccine construct composed of 382 amino acid residues which were organized in four domains including linear B-cell, T-cell epitopes and cholera toxin B-subunit (CTxB) along with heat labile enterotoxin IIc B subunit (LT-IIc) as adjuvants. All the segments were joined using appropriate linkers. The physicochemical properties as well as the presence of IFN-γ inducing epitopes in the proposed vaccine, was also checked to determining the vaccine stability, solubility and its ability to induce cell-mediated immune responses. The 3D structure of proposed vaccine was subjected to the prediction of computational B-cell epitopes and molecular docking studies with MHC-I and II molecules. Furthermore, molecular dynamics stimulations were performed to study the vaccine-MHCs complexes stability during stimulation time. The results suggest that our proposed vaccine was stable, well soluble in water and potentially antigenic. Results also demonstrated that the vaccine can induce both humoral and cell-mediated immune responses and could serve as a promising anti-CCHF vaccine candidate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mokhtar Nosrati
- Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Advanced Sciences and Technologies, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
| | - Mandana Behbahani
- Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Advanced Sciences and Technologies, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
| | - Hassan Mohabatkar
- Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Advanced Sciences and Technologies, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran.
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New Insights on the Adjuvant Properties of the Leishmania infantum Eukaryotic Initiation Factor. J Immunol Res 2019; 2019:9124326. [PMID: 31183394 PMCID: PMC6515109 DOI: 10.1155/2019/9124326] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2018] [Revised: 01/16/2019] [Accepted: 02/19/2019] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Vaccination is the most effective tool against infectious diseases. Subunit vaccines are safer compared to live-attenuated vaccines but are less immunogenic and need to be delivered with an adjuvant. Adjuvants are essential for enhancing vaccine potency by improving humoral and cell-mediated immune responses. Only a limited number of adjuvants are licensed for human vaccines, and their mode of action is still not clear. Leishmania eukaryotic initiation factor (LeIF) has been described having a dual role, as a natural adjuvant and as an antigen that possesses advantageous immunomodulatory properties. In this study, we assessed the adjuvant properties of recombinant Leishmania infantum eukaryotic initiation factor (LieIF) through in vitro and in vivo assays. LieIF was intraperitoneally administered in combination with the protein antigen ovalbumin (OVA), and the widely used alum was used as a reference adjuvant. Our in vitro studies using J774A.1 macrophages showed that LieIF induced stimulatory effects as demonstrated by the enhanced surface expression of CD80 and CD86 co-stimulatory molecules and the induced production of the immune mediators NO and MIP-1α. Additionally, LieIF co-administration with OVA in an in vivo murine model induced a proinflammatory environment as demonstrated by the elevated expression of TNF-α, IL-1β, and NF-κB2 genes in peritoneal exudate cells (PEC). Furthermore, PEC derived from OVA-LieIF-immunized mice exhibited elevated expression of CD80 molecule and production of NO and MIP-1α in culture supernatants. Moreover, LieIF administration in the peritoneum of mice resulted in the recruitment of neutrophils and monocytes at 24 h post-injection. Also, we showed that this immunopotentiating effect of LieIF did not depend on the induction of uric acid danger signal. These findings suggest the potential use of LieIF as adjuvant in new vaccine formulations against different infectious diseases.
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Hajissa K, Zakaria R, Suppian R, Mohamed Z. Epitope-based vaccine as a universal vaccination strategy against Toxoplasma gondii infection: A mini-review. J Adv Vet Anim Res 2019; 6:174-182. [PMID: 31453188 PMCID: PMC6702889 DOI: 10.5455/javar.2019.f329] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2018] [Revised: 02/10/2019] [Accepted: 02/16/2019] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Despite the significant progress in the recent efforts toward developing an effective vaccine against toxoplasmosis, the search for new protective vaccination strategy still remains a challenge and elusive goal because it becomes the appropriate way to prevent the disease. Various experimental approaches in the past few years showed that developing a potential vaccine against the disease can be achievable. The combination of multi-epitopes expressing different stages of the parasite life cycle has become an optimal strategy for acquiring a potent, safe, and effective vaccine. Epitope-based vaccines have gained attention as alternative vaccine candidates due to their ability of inducing protective immune responses. This mini-review highlights the current status and the prospects of Toxoplasma gondii vaccine development along with the application of epitope-based vaccine in the future parasite immunization as a novel under development and evaluation strategy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Khalid Hajissa
- Department of Medical Microbiology & Parasitology, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 16150 Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia
| | - Robaiza Zakaria
- Department of Medical Microbiology & Parasitology, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 16150 Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia
| | - Rapeah Suppian
- Biomedicine Program, School of Health Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia 16150 Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia
| | - Zeehaida Mohamed
- Department of Medical Microbiology & Parasitology, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 16150 Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia
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Conserved peptide vaccine candidates containing multiple Ebola nucleoprotein epitopes display interactions with diverse HLA molecules. Med Microbiol Immunol 2019; 208:227-238. [DOI: 10.1007/s00430-019-00584-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2018] [Accepted: 02/11/2019] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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Ribeiro PA, Dias DS, Lage DP, Martins VT, Costa LE, Santos TT, Ramos FF, Tavares GS, Mendonça DV, Ludolf F, Gomes DA, Rodrigues MA, Chávez-Fumagalli MA, Silva ES, Galdino AS, Duarte MC, Roatt BM, Menezes-Souza D, Teixeira AL, Coelho EA. Immunogenicity and protective efficacy of a new Leishmania hypothetical protein applied as a DNA vaccine or in a recombinant form against Leishmania infantum infection. Mol Immunol 2019; 106:108-118. [DOI: 10.1016/j.molimm.2018.12.025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2018] [Revised: 09/01/2018] [Accepted: 12/21/2018] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
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41
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Highly conserved hemagglutinin peptides of H1N1 influenza virus elicit immune response. 3 Biotech 2018; 8:492. [PMID: 30498665 DOI: 10.1007/s13205-018-1509-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/12/2017] [Accepted: 11/09/2018] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
In the current study, two highly conserved (> 90%) H1N1 hemagglutinin peptides STDTVDTVLEKNVTVTHSVNL (H1) and KVNSVIEKMNTQFTAVGKEF (H2) containing multiple T-cell epitopes have been assessed for their immunogenic potential in vitro, subjecting peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy volunteers to repetitive stimulation of chemically synthesised H1 and H2 peptides, and measuring their interferon (IFN)-γ level (ELISA) and proliferation (MTT assay). Further, these peptides were analysed for their binding affinity with 18 different human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I and II by means of molecular docking. All seven samples tested for H1- and H2-induced IFN-γ secretion were found to have enhanced IFN-γ production. Six (H1) and five (H2) samples have shown proliferative response compared to unstimulated cells. Peptide-induced IFN-γ secretion and proliferation in healthy samples represent the immunogenic potential of these peptides. Further, molecular docking results reveal that the peptides have comparable binding energy to that of native bound peptide for both HLA classes which indicates that these peptides have the capability to be presented by different HLA molecules required for T-cell response. Hence, these conserved immunogenic hemagglutinin peptides are potential candidates for influenza vaccine development.
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Dias DS, Ribeiro PAF, Martins VT, Lage DP, Costa LE, Chávez-Fumagalli MA, Ramos FF, Santos TTO, Ludolf F, Oliveira JS, Mendes TAO, Silva ES, Galdino AS, Duarte MC, Roatt BM, Menezes-Souza D, Teixeira AL, Coelho EAF. Vaccination with a CD4 + and CD8 + T-cell epitopes-based recombinant chimeric protein derived from Leishmania infantum proteins confers protective immunity against visceral leishmaniasis. Transl Res 2018; 200:18-34. [PMID: 29908151 DOI: 10.1016/j.trsl.2018.05.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2018] [Revised: 05/09/2018] [Accepted: 05/14/2018] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
Vaccination seems to be the best approach to control visceral leishmaniasis (VL). Resistance against infection is based on the development of a Th1 immune response characterized by the production of interferons-γ (IFN-γ), interleukin-12 (IL-12), granulocyte-macrophage-colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), among others. A number of antigens have been tested as potential targets against the disease; few of them are able to stimulate human immune cells. In the present study, 1 prediction of MHC class I and II molecules-specific epitopes in the amino acid sequences of 3 Leishmania proteins: 1 hypothetical, prohibitin, and small glutamine-rich tetratricopeptide repeat-containing proteins, was performed using bioinformatics tools, and a T-cell epitopes-based recombinant chimeric protein was constructed, synthetized and purified to be evaluated in invitro and in vivo experiments. The purified protein was tested regarding its immunogenicity in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy subjects and VL patients, as well as to its immunogenicity and protective efficacy in a murine model against Leishmania infantum infection. Results showed a Th1 response based on high IFN-γ and low IL-10 levels derived from in chimera-stimulated PBMCs in both healthy subjects and VL patients. In addition, chimera and/or saponin-immunized mice presented significantly lower parasite burden in distinct evaluated organs, when compared to the controls, besides higher levels of IFN-γ, IL-2, IL-12, and GM-CSF, and an IgG2a isotype-based humoral response. In addition, the CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell subtypes contributed to IFN-γ production in the protected animals. The results showed the immunogenicity in human cells and the protective efficacy against L. infantum in a murine model, and well indicate that this recombinant chimera can be considered as a promising strategy to be used against human disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel S Dias
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde: Infectologia e Medicina Tropical, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Patrícia A F Ribeiro
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde: Infectologia e Medicina Tropical, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Vívian T Martins
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde: Infectologia e Medicina Tropical, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Daniela P Lage
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde: Infectologia e Medicina Tropical, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Lourena E Costa
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde: Infectologia e Medicina Tropical, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Miguel A Chávez-Fumagalli
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde: Infectologia e Medicina Tropical, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Fernanda F Ramos
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde: Infectologia e Medicina Tropical, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Thaís T O Santos
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde: Infectologia e Medicina Tropical, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Fernanda Ludolf
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde: Infectologia e Medicina Tropical, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Jamil S Oliveira
- Departamento de Bioquímica e Imunologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Tiago A O Mendes
- Departamento de Bioquímica e Biologia Molecular, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Eduardo S Silva
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biotecnologia, Universidade Federal de São João Del-Rei, Divinópolis, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Alexsandro S Galdino
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biotecnologia, Universidade Federal de São João Del-Rei, Divinópolis, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Mariana C Duarte
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde: Infectologia e Medicina Tropical, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil; Departamento de Patologia Clínica, COLTEC, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Bruno M Roatt
- Departamento de Patologia Clínica, COLTEC, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Daniel Menezes-Souza
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde: Infectologia e Medicina Tropical, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil; Departamento de Patologia Clínica, COLTEC, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Antonio L Teixeira
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde: Infectologia e Medicina Tropical, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil; Neuropsychiatry Program, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, McGovern Medical School, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, USA; 1941 East Road, Houston, TX, 77041
| | - Eduardo A F Coelho
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde: Infectologia e Medicina Tropical, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil; Departamento de Patologia Clínica, COLTEC, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
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43
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Dikhit MR, Das S, Mahantesh V, Kumar A, Singh AK, Dehury B, Rout AK, Ali V, Sahoo GC, Topno RK, Pandey K, Das VNR, Bimal S, Das P. The potential HLA Class I-restricted epitopes derived from LeIF and TSA of Leishmania donovani evoke anti-leishmania CD8+ T lymphocyte response. Sci Rep 2018; 8:14175. [PMID: 30242172 PMCID: PMC6154976 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-32040-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2018] [Accepted: 08/14/2018] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
To explore new protective measure against visceral leishmaniasis, reverse vaccinology approach was employed to identify key immunogenic regions which can mediate long-term immunity. In-depth computational analysis revealed nine promiscuous epitopes which can possibly be presented by 46 human leukocyte antigen, thereby broadening the worldwide population up to 94.16%. This is of reasonable significance that most of the epitopes shared 100% sequence homology with other Leishmania species and could evoke a common pattern of protective immune response. Transporter associated with antigen processing binding affinity, molecular docking approach followed by dynamics simulation and human leukocyte antigen stabilization assay suggested that the best five optimal set of epitopes bind in between α1 and α2 binding groove with sufficient affinity and stability which allows the translocation of intact epitope to the cell surface. Fascinatingly, the human leukocyte antigen stabilization assay exhibited a modest correlation with the positive immunogenicity score predicted by class I pMHC immunogenicity predictor. A support for this notion came from ELISA and FACS analysis where the epitopes as a cocktail induced CD8+ IFN-γ and Granzyme B levels significantly in treated visceral leishmaniasis subject which suggests the immunogenic ability of the selected epitopes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manas Ranjan Dikhit
- BioMedical Informatics Division, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Agamkuan, Patna, 800007, Bihar, India.,Department of Immunology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Agamkuan, Patna, 800007, Bihar, India
| | - Sushmita Das
- Department of Microbiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, 801507, Bihar, India
| | - Vijaya Mahantesh
- Department of Immunology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Agamkuan, Patna, 800007, Bihar, India
| | - Akhilesh Kumar
- Department of Immunology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Agamkuan, Patna, 800007, Bihar, India
| | - Ashish Kumar Singh
- Department of Immunology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Agamkuan, Patna, 800007, Bihar, India
| | - Budheswar Dehury
- BioMedical Informatics Centre, ICMR-Regional Medical Research Centre, Bhubaneswar, 751023, Odisha, India
| | - Ajaya Kumar Rout
- Biotechnology Laboratory, ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore, Kolkata, 700120, West Bengal, India
| | - Vahab Ali
- Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Agamkuan, Patna, 800007, Bihar, India
| | - Ganesh Chandra Sahoo
- BioMedical Informatics Division, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Agamkuan, Patna, 800007, Bihar, India
| | - Roshan Kamal Topno
- Department of Epidemiology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Agamkuan, Patna, 800007, Bihar, India
| | - Krishna Pandey
- Department of Clinical Medicine, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Agamkuan, Patna, 800007, Bihar, India
| | - V N R Das
- Department of Clinical Medicine, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Agamkuan, Patna, 800007, Bihar, India
| | - Sanjiva Bimal
- Department of Immunology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Agamkuan, Patna, 800007, Bihar, India
| | - Pradeep Das
- Department of Molecular Parasitology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Agamkuan, Patna, 800007, Bihar, India.
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44
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De Brito RCF, Cardoso JMDO, Reis LES, Vieira JF, Mathias FAS, Roatt BM, Aguiar-Soares RDDO, Ruiz JC, Resende DDM, Reis AB. Peptide Vaccines for Leishmaniasis. Front Immunol 2018; 9:1043. [PMID: 29868006 PMCID: PMC5958606 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.01043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2018] [Accepted: 04/26/2018] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Due to an increase in the incidence of leishmaniases worldwide, the development of new strategies such as prophylactic vaccines to prevent infection and decrease the disease have become a high priority. Classic vaccines against leishmaniases were based on live or attenuated parasites or their subunits. Nevertheless, the use of whole parasite or their subunits for vaccine production has numerous disadvantages. Therefore, the use of Leishmania peptides to design more specific vaccines against leishmaniases seems promising. Moreover, peptides have several benefits in comparison with other kinds of antigens, for instance, good stability, absence of potentially damaging materials, antigen low complexity, and low-cost to scale up. By contrast, peptides are poor immunogenic alone, and they need to be delivered correctly. In this context, several approaches described in this review are useful to solve these drawbacks. Approaches, such as, peptides in combination with potent adjuvants, cellular vaccinations, adenovirus, polyepitopes, or DNA vaccines have been used to develop peptide-based vaccines. Recent advancements in peptide vaccine design, chimeric, or polypeptide vaccines and nanovaccines based on particles attached or formulated with antigenic components or peptides have been increasingly employed to drive a specific immune response. In this review, we briefly summarize the old, current, and future stands on peptide-based vaccines, describing the disadvantages and benefits associated with them. We also propose possible approaches to overcome the related weaknesses of synthetic vaccines and suggest future guidelines for their development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rory C F De Brito
- Laboratório de Pesquisas Clínicas, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências Farmacêuticas/CiPharma, Escola de Farmácia, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil.,Laboratório de Imunopatologia, Núcleo de Pesquisas em Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil
| | - Jamille M De O Cardoso
- Laboratório de Imunopatologia, Núcleo de Pesquisas em Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil
| | - Levi E S Reis
- Laboratório de Pesquisas Clínicas, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências Farmacêuticas/CiPharma, Escola de Farmácia, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil.,Laboratório de Imunopatologia, Núcleo de Pesquisas em Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil
| | - Joao F Vieira
- Laboratório de Imunopatologia, Núcleo de Pesquisas em Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil
| | - Fernando A S Mathias
- Laboratório de Imunopatologia, Núcleo de Pesquisas em Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil
| | - Bruno M Roatt
- Laboratório de Pesquisas Clínicas, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências Farmacêuticas/CiPharma, Escola de Farmácia, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil.,Laboratório de Imunopatologia, Núcleo de Pesquisas em Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil.,Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia em Doenças Tropicais, Salvador, Brazil
| | - Rodrigo Dian D O Aguiar-Soares
- Laboratório de Imunopatologia, Núcleo de Pesquisas em Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil
| | - Jeronimo C Ruiz
- Grupo Informática de Biossistemas e Genômica, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências da Saúde, Instituto René Rachou, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.,Programa de Pós-graduação em Biologia Computacional e Sistemas, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Daniela de M Resende
- Grupo Informática de Biossistemas e Genômica, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências da Saúde, Instituto René Rachou, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.,Programa de Pós-graduação em Biologia Computacional e Sistemas, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Alexandre B Reis
- Laboratório de Pesquisas Clínicas, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências Farmacêuticas/CiPharma, Escola de Farmácia, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil.,Laboratório de Imunopatologia, Núcleo de Pesquisas em Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil.,Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia em Doenças Tropicais, Salvador, Brazil
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45
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MHC class I presented antigens from malignancies: A perspective on analytical characterization & immunogenicity. J Proteomics 2018; 191:48-57. [PMID: 29698800 DOI: 10.1016/j.jprot.2018.04.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2017] [Revised: 04/10/2018] [Accepted: 04/14/2018] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
The field of cancer immunotherapy has expanded rapidly in the past few years, with many new approaches entering the clinic for T cell mediated killing of tumors. Several of these clinical approaches involve the exploitation of a CD8 + T cell response against MHC I presented tumor antigens. Here, we describe the types of tumor antigens which are considered as targets in the design of T cell based therapeutic approaches, the rationale for targeting MHC I antigens and the analytical tools commonly employed for the discovery of MHC I presented peptides. The advantages and disadvantages of each approach are discussed and a perspective on the future directions of the MHC I peptide exploration field and biotherapeutic strategies is given. SIGNIFICANCE: This work is the first time a review article has been written to summarize all the various types of tumor antigens, and the analytical tools employed to discover and characterize them.
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46
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Llanes A, Restrepo CM, Lleonart R. VianniaTopes: a database of predicted immunogenic peptides for Leishmania (Viannia) species. Database (Oxford) 2018; 2018:5144431. [PMID: 30358842 PMCID: PMC6201054 DOI: 10.1093/database/bay111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2018] [Revised: 09/11/2018] [Accepted: 09/21/2018] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Leishmania is a protozoan parasite causing several disease presentations collectively known as leishmaniasis. Pathogenic species of Leishmania are divided into two subgenera, L. (Leishmania) and L. (Viannia). Species belonging to the Viannia subgenus have only been reported in Central and South America. These species predominantly cause cutaneous leishmaniasis, but in some cases, parasites can migrate to the nasopharyngeal area and cause a highly disfiguring mucocutaneous presentation. Despite intensive efforts, no effective antileishmanial vaccine is available for use in humans, although a few candidates mainly designed for L. (Leishmania) species are now in clinical trials. After sequencing the genome of Leishmania panamensis, we noticed a high degree of sequence divergence among several orthologous proteins from both subgenera. Consequently, some of the previously published candidates may not work properly for species of the Viannia subgenus. To help in vaccine design, we predicted CD4+ and CD8+ T cell epitopes in the theoretical proteomes of four strains belonging to the Viannia subgenus. Prediction was performed with at least two independent bioinformatics tools, using the most frequent human major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I and class II alleles in the affected geographic area. Although predictions resulted in millions of peptides, relatively few of them were predicted to bind to several MHC alleles and can therefore be considered promiscuous epitopes. Comparison of our results to previous applications to species of the Leishmania subgenus confirmed that approximately half of the reported candidates are not present in Viannia proteins with a threshold of 80% sequence similarity and coverage. However, our prediction methodology was able to predict 70-100% of the candidates that could be found in Viannia. All the prediction data generated in this study are publicly available in an interactive database called VianniaTopes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alejandro Llanes
- Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología (INDICASAT AIP), Ciudad del Saber, Panama City, Panama
- Department of Biotechnology, Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur, India
| | - Carlos Mario Restrepo
- Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología (INDICASAT AIP), Ciudad del Saber, Panama City, Panama
| | - Ricardo Lleonart
- Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología (INDICASAT AIP), Ciudad del Saber, Panama City, Panama
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47
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Dias DS, Ribeiro PA, Martins VT, Lage DP, Ramos FF, Dias AL, Rodrigues MR, Portela ÁS, Costa LE, Caligiorne RB, Steiner BT, Chávez-Fumagalli MA, Salles BC, Santos TT, Silveira JA, Magalhães-Soares DF, Roatt BM, Machado-de-Ávila RA, Duarte MC, Menezes-Souza D, Silva ES, Galdino AS, Coelho EA. Recombinant prohibitin protein of Leishmania infantum acts as a vaccine candidate and diagnostic marker against visceral leishmaniasis. Cell Immunol 2018; 323:59-69. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cellimm.2017.11.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2017] [Revised: 10/31/2017] [Accepted: 11/01/2017] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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48
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Vakili B, Nezafat N, Hatam GR, Zare B, Erfani N, Ghasemi Y. Proteome-scale identification of Leishmania infantum for novel vaccine candidates: A hierarchical subtractive approach. Comput Biol Chem 2017; 72:16-25. [PMID: 29291591 DOI: 10.1016/j.compbiolchem.2017.12.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2017] [Revised: 11/16/2017] [Accepted: 12/18/2017] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
Vaccines are one of the most significant achievements in medical science. However, vaccine design is still challenging at all stages. The selection of antigenic peptides as vaccine candidates is the first and most important step for vaccine design. Experimental selection of antigenic peptides for the design of vaccines is a time-consuming, labor-intensive and expensive procedure. More recently, in the light of computer-aided biotechnology and reverse vaccinology, the precise selection of antigenic peptides and rational vaccine design against many pathogens have developed. In this study, the whole proteome of Leishmania infantum was analyzed using a pipeline of algorithms. From the set of 8045 proteins of L. infantum, sixteen novel antigenic proteins were derived using a hierarchical proteome subtractive analysis. These novel vaccine targets can be utilized as top candidates for designing the new prophylactic or therapeutic vaccines against visceral leishmaniasis. Significantly, all the sixteen novel vaccine candidates are non-allergen antigenic proteins that have not been used for the design of vaccines against visceral leishmaniasis until now.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bahareh Vakili
- Department of Medical Biotechnology, School of Advanced Medical Sciences and Technologies, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
| | - Navid Nezafat
- Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
| | - Gholam Reza Hatam
- Basic Sciences in Infectious Diseases Research Center, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
| | - Bijan Zare
- Department of Medical Biotechnology, School of Advanced Medical Sciences and Technologies, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
| | - Nasrollah Erfani
- Institute for Cancer Research (ICR), School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
| | - Younes Ghasemi
- Department of Medical Biotechnology, School of Advanced Medical Sciences and Technologies, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran; Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran; Department of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Pharmacy, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
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49
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Dikhit MR, Kumar A, Das S, Dehury B, Rout AK, Jamal F, Sahoo GC, Topno RK, Pandey K, Das VNR, Bimal S, Das P. Identification of Potential MHC Class-II-Restricted Epitopes Derived from Leishmania donovani Antigens by Reverse Vaccinology and Evaluation of Their CD4+ T-Cell Responsiveness against Visceral Leishmaniasis. Front Immunol 2017; 8:1763. [PMID: 29312304 PMCID: PMC5735068 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2017.01763] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2017] [Accepted: 11/27/2017] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is one of the most neglected tropical diseases for which no vaccine exists. In spite of extensive efforts, no successful vaccine is available against this dreadful infectious disease. To support vaccine development, an immunoinformatics approach was applied to screen potential MHC class-II-restricted epitopes that can activate the immune cells. Initially, 37 epitopes derived from six stage-dependent, overexpressed antigens were predicted, which were presented by at least 26 diverse MHC class-II allele. Based on a population coverage analysis and human leukocyte antigen cross-presentation ability, six of the 37 epitopes were selected for further analysis. Stimulation with synthetic peptide alone or as a cocktail triggered intracellular IFN-γ production. Moreover, specific IgG antibodies were detected in the serum of active VL cases against P1, P4, P5, and P6 in order to evaluate the peptide effect on the humoral immune response. Additionally, most of the peptides, except P2, were found to be non-inducers of CD4+ IL-10 against both active VL as well as treated VL subjects. This finding suggests there is no role of these peptides in the pathogenesis of Leishmania. Peptide immunogenicity was validated in BALB/c mice immunized with a cocktail of synthetic peptide emulsified in complete Freund’s adjuvant/incomplete Freund’s adjuvant. The immunized splenocytes induced strong spleen cell proliferation upon parasite re-stimulation. Furthermore, increased IFN-γ, interleukin-12, IL-17, and IL-22 production augmented with elevated nitric oxide (NO) synthesis is thought to play a crucial role in macrophage activation. In this investigation, we identified six MHC class-II-restricted epitope hotspots of Leishmania antigens that induce CD4+ Th1 and Th17 responses, which could be used to potentiate a human universal T-epitope vaccine against VL.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manas Ranjan Dikhit
- BioMedical Informatics Division, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, India.,Department of Immunology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, India
| | - Akhilesh Kumar
- Department of Immunology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, India
| | - Sushmita Das
- Department of Microbiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, India
| | - Budheswar Dehury
- Biomedical Informatics Centre, ICMR-Regional Medical Research Centre, Odisha, India
| | - Ajaya Kumar Rout
- Biotechnology Laboratory, ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Kolkata, India
| | - Fauzia Jamal
- Department of Microbiology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, India
| | - Ganesh Chandra Sahoo
- BioMedical Informatics Division, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, India
| | - Roshan Kamal Topno
- Department of Clinical Medicine, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, India
| | - Krishna Pandey
- Department of Clinical Medicine, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, India
| | - V N R Das
- Department of Clinical Medicine, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, India
| | - Sanjiva Bimal
- Department of Immunology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, India
| | - Pradeep Das
- Department of Molecular Parasitology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, India
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In silico analysis and in vitro evaluation of immunogenic and immunomodulatory properties of promiscuous peptides derived from Leishmania infantum eukaryotic initiation factor. Bioorg Med Chem 2017; 25:5904-5916. [PMID: 28974324 DOI: 10.1016/j.bmc.2017.07.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2016] [Revised: 06/16/2017] [Accepted: 07/06/2017] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
It is generally considered as imperative the ability to control leishmaniasis through the development of a protective vaccine capable of inducing long-lasting and protective cell-mediated immune responses. In this current study, we demonstrated potential epitopes that bind to H2 MHC class I and II molecules by conducting the in silico analysis of Leishmania infantum eukaryotic Initiation Factor (LieIF) protein, using online available algorithms. Moreover, we synthesized five peptides (16-18 amino acids long) which are part of the N-terminal portion of LieIF and contain promising MHC class I and II-restricted epitopes and afterwards, their predicted immunogenicity was evaluated in vitro by monitoring peptide-specific T-cell responses. Additionally, the immunomodulatory properties of these peptides were investigated in vitro by exploring their potential of inducing phenotypic maturation and functional differentiation of murine Bone-Marrow derived Dendritic Cells (BM-DCs). It was revealed by our data that all the synthetic peptides predicted for H2 alleles; present the property of immunogenicity. Among the synthetic peptides which contained T-cell epitopes, the peptide 52-68 aa (LieIF_2) exhibited immunomodulatory properties with the larger potential. LieIF_2-pulsed BM-DCs up-regulated the expression of the co-stimulatory surface molecules CD80 and CD86, as well as the production of the proinflammatory cytokine TNF-α and of the Th1-polarizing cytokines IL-12 and IFN-γ. The aforementioned data suggest that selected parts of LieIF could be used to develop innovative subunit protective vaccines able to induce effective immunity mediated by MHC class I-restricted as well as class II-restricted T-cell responses.
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