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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] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [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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Gao S, Huan F, Wu MX, Ni LN, Gu Y, Liu YX, Han TJ, Liu M, Lai D, Liu GM. Mutation of Disulfide Bond Sites Reduces the Immunoreactivity of Cra a 4 by Changing the Structural Characteristics. J Agric Food Chem 2024. [PMID: 38598840 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.4c01120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/12/2024]
Abstract
Sarcoplasmic calcium-binding protein (Cra a 4) from Crassostrea angulata belongs to the EF-hand superfamily, and understanding of its structure-allergenicity relationship is still insufficient. In this study, chemical denaturants were used to destroy the structure of Cra a 4, showing that disruption of the structure reduced its IgG-/IgE-binding activity. To explore which critical amino acid site affects the allergenicity of Cra a 4, the mutants were obtained by site-directed mutations in the disulfide bonds site (C97), conformational epitopes (I105, D114), or Ca2+-binding region (D106, D110) and their IgG-/IgE-binding activity was reduced significantly using serological tests. Notably, C97A had the lowest immunoreactivity. In addition, two conformational epitopes of Cra 4 were verified. Meanwhile, the increase of the α-helical content, surface hydrophobicity, and surface electrostatic potential of C97A affected its allergenicity. Overall, the understanding of the structure-allergenicity relationship of Cra a 4 allowed the development of a hypoallergenic mutant.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuai Gao
- College of Ocean Food and Biological Engineering, Xiamen Key Laboratory of Marine Functional Food, Fujian Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center of Marine Functional Food, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, Fujian, China
| | - Fei Huan
- College of Ocean Food and Biological Engineering, Xiamen Key Laboratory of Marine Functional Food, Fujian Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center of Marine Functional Food, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, Fujian, China
| | - Ming-Xuan Wu
- College of Ocean Food and Biological Engineering, Xiamen Key Laboratory of Marine Functional Food, Fujian Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center of Marine Functional Food, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, Fujian, China
| | - Ling-Na Ni
- College of Ocean Food and Biological Engineering, Xiamen Key Laboratory of Marine Functional Food, Fujian Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center of Marine Functional Food, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, Fujian, China
| | - Yi Gu
- College of Ocean Food and Biological Engineering, Xiamen Key Laboratory of Marine Functional Food, Fujian Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center of Marine Functional Food, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, Fujian, China
| | - Ya-Xin Liu
- College of Ocean Food and Biological Engineering, Xiamen Key Laboratory of Marine Functional Food, Fujian Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center of Marine Functional Food, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, Fujian, China
| | - Tian-Jiao Han
- College of Ocean Food and Biological Engineering, Xiamen Key Laboratory of Marine Functional Food, Fujian Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center of Marine Functional Food, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, Fujian, China
| | - Meng Liu
- College of Ocean Food and Biological Engineering, Xiamen Key Laboratory of Marine Functional Food, Fujian Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center of Marine Functional Food, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, Fujian, China
| | - Dong Lai
- The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen Medical College, Xiamen 361021, Fujian, China
| | - Guang-Ming Liu
- College of Ocean Food and Biological Engineering, Xiamen Key Laboratory of Marine Functional Food, Fujian Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center of Marine Functional Food, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, Fujian, China
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Schindler CR, Hörauf JA, Weber B, Schaible I, Marzi I, Henrich D, Leppik L. Identification of novel blood-based extracellular vesicles biomarker candidates with potential specificity for traumatic brain injury in polytrauma patients. Front Immunol 2024; 15:1347767. [PMID: 38533491 PMCID: PMC10963595 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1347767] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2023] [Accepted: 02/19/2024] [Indexed: 03/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Objective The goal of this study was to identify changes in extracellular vesicles (EV) surface proteins specific to traumatic brain injury (TBI), which could be used as a diagnostic and prognostic tool in polytrauma patients. Summary Background Data Known serum TBI-specific biomarkers (S100B, NSE, and GFAP), which can predict the severity and outcome of isolated TBI, lose their predictive value in the presence of additional extracranial injuries. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are released from cells in response to various stimuli and carry specific cargo/surface molecules that could be used for tracking injury-responding cells. Methods EVs were isolated using size exclusion chromatography (SEC) from the plasma of two groups of patients (with isolated TBI, ISS≥16, AIShead≥4, n=10; and polytraumatized patients without TBI ISS≥16, AIShead=0, n=10) collected in the emergency room and 48 h after trauma. EVs' surface epitope expression was investigated using a neurospecific multiplex flow cytometry assay and compared with healthy controls (n=10). Three enrichments of EV epitopes found to be specific to TBI were validated by western blot. Results The expression of 10 EV epitopes differed significantly among the patient and control groups, and five of these epitopes (CD13, CD196, MOG, CD133, and MBP) were TBI-specific. The increased expression of CD196, CD13, and MOG-positive EVs was validated by western blot. Conclusion Our data showed that TBI is characterized by a significant increase of CD13, CD196, MOG, CD133, and MBP-positive EVs in patients' plasma. A high level of MOG-positive EVs negatively correlated with the Glasgow Coma Scale score at admission and could be an indicator of poor neurological status.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | | | - Liudmila Leppik
- Department of Trauma-, Hand- and Reconstructive Surgery, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
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Durand G, Desoutter J, Lorriaux C, Poumaredes G, Joris M, Charbonnier A, Lebon D, Paubelle E, Garcon L, Guillaume N. Platelet transfusions in haploidentical haematopoietic stem cell allograft candidates: Protecting HLA-A and HLA-B antigens through eplet analysis. HLA 2024; 103:e15438. [PMID: 38516935 DOI: 10.1111/tan.15438] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2023] [Revised: 01/29/2024] [Accepted: 02/28/2024] [Indexed: 03/23/2024]
Abstract
In patients awaiting an allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation, platelet transfusion is a risk factor for anti-HLA class I immunization because the resulting donor-specific antibodies complicate the allograft process. The objective of the present study was to determine the feasibility of a novel eplet-based strategy for identifying HLA class I mismatches between potential donors and the recipient when pre-allograft platelet transfusions were required. We included 114 recipient/haploidentical relative pairs. For each pair, we entered HLA-class I typing data into the HLA Eplet Mismatch calculator, defined the list of mismatched eplets (for the recipient versus donor direction) and thus identified the shared HLAs to be avoided. Using this list of HLAs, we defined the theoretical availability of platelet components (PCs) by calculating the virtual panel-reactive antibody (vPRA). We also determined the number of PCs actually available in France by querying the regional transfusion centre's database. The mean ± standard deviation number of highly/moderately exposed eplets to be avoided in platelet transfusions was 5.8 ± 3.3, which led to the prohibition of 38.5 ± 2 HLAs-A and -B. Taking into account the mismatched antigens and the eplet load, the mean ± standard deviation theoretical availability of PCs (according to the vPRA) was respectively 34.49% ± 1.95% for HLA-A and 80% ± 2.3% for HLA-B. A vPRA value below 94.9% for highly or moderately exposed eplets would predict that 10 PCs were actually available nationally. Although epitope protection of HLA molecules is feasible, it significantly restricts the choice of PCs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gatien Durand
- Department of Haematology and Histocompatibility, Amiens University Hospital, Amiens, France
- EA HEMATIM 4666, Jules Verne University of Picardie, Amiens, France
| | - Judith Desoutter
- Department of Haematology and Histocompatibility, Amiens University Hospital, Amiens, France
- EA HEMATIM 4666, Jules Verne University of Picardie, Amiens, France
| | - Corinne Lorriaux
- Department of Blood Transfusions, Amiens University Hospital, Amiens, France
| | - Géraldine Poumaredes
- Department of Biology, Etablissement Français du Sang (EFS) Hauts de France, Amiens, France
| | - Magalie Joris
- Department of Clinical Haematology and Cellular Therapy, Amiens University Hospital, Amiens, France
| | - Amandine Charbonnier
- Department of Clinical Haematology and Cellular Therapy, Amiens University Hospital, Amiens, France
| | - Delphine Lebon
- EA HEMATIM 4666, Jules Verne University of Picardie, Amiens, France
- Department of Clinical Haematology and Cellular Therapy, Amiens University Hospital, Amiens, France
| | - Etienne Paubelle
- EA HEMATIM 4666, Jules Verne University of Picardie, Amiens, France
- Department of Clinical Haematology and Cellular Therapy, Amiens University Hospital, Amiens, France
| | - Loïc Garcon
- Department of Haematology and Histocompatibility, Amiens University Hospital, Amiens, France
- EA HEMATIM 4666, Jules Verne University of Picardie, Amiens, France
| | - Nicolas Guillaume
- Department of Haematology and Histocompatibility, Amiens University Hospital, Amiens, France
- EA HEMATIM 4666, Jules Verne University of Picardie, Amiens, France
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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] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [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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Santos E, Spensley K, Gunby N, Worthington J, Roufosse C, Anand A, Willicombe M. Application of HLA molecular level mismatching in ethnically diverse kidney transplant recipients receiving a steroid-sparing immunosuppression protocol. Am J Transplant 2024:S1600-6135(24)00161-8. [PMID: 38403189 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajt.2024.02.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2023] [Revised: 02/07/2024] [Accepted: 02/13/2024] [Indexed: 02/27/2024]
Abstract
Defining HLA mismatch at the molecular compared with the antigen level has been shown to be superior in predicting alloimmune responses, although data from across different patient populations are lacking. Using HLA-Matchmaker, HLA-EMMA and PIRCHE-II, this study reports on the association between molecular mismatch (MolMM) and de novo donor-specific antibody (dnDSA) in an ethnically diverse kidney transplant population receiving a steroid-sparing immunosuppression protocol. Of the 419 patients, 51 (12.2%) patients had dnDSA. De novo DSA were seen more frequently with males, primary transplants, patients receiving tacrolimus monotherapy, and unfavorably HLA-matched transplants. There was a strong correlation between MolMM load and antigen mismatch, although significant variation of MolMM load existed at each antigen mismatch. MolMM loads differed significantly by recipient ethnicity, although ethnicity alone was not associated with dnDSA. On multivariate analysis, increasing MolMM loads associated with dnDSA, whereas antigen mismatch did not. De novo DSA against 8 specific epitopes occurred at high frequency; of the 51 patients, 47 (92.1%) patients with dnDSA underwent a pretreatment biopsy, with 21 (44.7%) having evidence of alloimmune injury. MolMM has higher specificity than antigen mismatching at identifying recipients who are at low risk of dnDSA while receiving minimalist immunosuppression. Immunogenicity consideration is important, with more work needed on identification, especially across different ethnic groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva Santos
- Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics Laboratory, Northwest London Pathology NHS Trust, Hammersmith Hospital, London, UK
| | - Katrina Spensley
- Imperial College Renal and Transplant Centre, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Hammersmith Hospital, London, UK; Centre for Inflammatory Disease, Department of Immunology and Inflammation, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Campus, London, UK
| | - Nicola Gunby
- Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics Laboratory, Northwest London Pathology NHS Trust, Hammersmith Hospital, London, UK
| | - Judith Worthington
- Transplantation Laboratory, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Oxford Road, Manchester, UK
| | - Candice Roufosse
- Centre for Inflammatory Disease, Department of Immunology and Inflammation, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Campus, London, UK; Department of Histopathology, Northwest London Pathology NHS Trust, Charing Cross Hospital, London, UK
| | - Arthi Anand
- Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics Laboratory, Northwest London Pathology NHS Trust, Hammersmith Hospital, London, UK
| | - Michelle Willicombe
- Imperial College Renal and Transplant Centre, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Hammersmith Hospital, London, UK; Centre for Inflammatory Disease, Department of Immunology and Inflammation, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Campus, London, UK.
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Martinez GS, Dutt M, Kelvin DJ, Kumar A. PoxiPred: An Artificial-Intelligence-Based Method for the Prediction of Potential Antigens and Epitopes to Accelerate Vaccine Development Efforts against Poxviruses. Biology (Basel) 2024; 13:125. [PMID: 38392343 PMCID: PMC10887159 DOI: 10.3390/biology13020125] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2023] [Revised: 01/29/2024] [Accepted: 02/01/2024] [Indexed: 02/24/2024]
Abstract
Poxviridae is a family of large, complex, enveloped, and double-stranded DNA viruses. The members of this family are ubiquitous and well known to cause contagious diseases in humans and other types of animals as well. Taxonomically, the poxviridae family is classified into two subfamilies, namely Chordopoxvirinae (affecting vertebrates) and Entomopoxvirinae (affecting insects). The members of the Chordopoxvirinae subfamily are further divided into 18 genera based on the genome architecture and evolutionary relationship. Of these 18 genera, four genera, namely Molluscipoxvirus, Orthopoxvirus, Parapoxvirus, and Yatapoxvirus, are known for infecting humans. Some of the popular members of poxviridae are variola virus, vaccine virus, Mpox (formerly known as monkeypox), cowpox, etc. There is still a pressing demand for the development of effective vaccines against poxviruses. Integrated immunoinformatics and artificial-intelligence (AI)-based methods have emerged as important approaches to design multi-epitope vaccines against contagious emerging infectious diseases. Despite significant progress in immunoinformatics and AI-based techniques, limited methods are available to predict the epitopes. In this study, we have proposed a unique method to predict the potential antigens and T-cell epitopes for multiple poxviruses. With PoxiPred, we developed an AI-based tool that was trained and tested with the antigens and epitopes of poxviruses. Our tool was able to locate 3191 antigen proteins from 25 distinct poxviruses. From these antigenic proteins, PoxiPred redundantly located up to five epitopes per protein, resulting in 16,817 potential T-cell epitopes which were mostly (i.e., 92%) predicted as being reactive to CD8+ T-cells. PoxiPred is able to, on a single run, identify antigens and T-cell epitopes for poxviruses with one single input, i.e., the proteome file of any poxvirus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gustavo Sganzerla Martinez
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 4H7, Canada
- Department of Pediatrics, Izaak Walton Killam (IWK) Health Center, Canadian Center for Vaccinology (CCfV), Halifax, NS B3H 4H7, Canada
- Laboratory of Immunity, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou 512025, China
- BioForge Canada Limited, Halifax, B3N3B9, NS, Canada
| | - Mansi Dutt
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 4H7, Canada
- Department of Pediatrics, Izaak Walton Killam (IWK) Health Center, Canadian Center for Vaccinology (CCfV), Halifax, NS B3H 4H7, Canada
- Laboratory of Immunity, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou 512025, China
- BioForge Canada Limited, Halifax, B3N3B9, NS, Canada
| | - David J Kelvin
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 4H7, Canada
- Department of Pediatrics, Izaak Walton Killam (IWK) Health Center, Canadian Center for Vaccinology (CCfV), Halifax, NS B3H 4H7, Canada
- Laboratory of Immunity, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou 512025, China
- BioForge Canada Limited, Halifax, B3N3B9, NS, Canada
| | - Anuj Kumar
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 4H7, Canada
- Department of Pediatrics, Izaak Walton Killam (IWK) Health Center, Canadian Center for Vaccinology (CCfV), Halifax, NS B3H 4H7, Canada
- Laboratory of Immunity, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou 512025, China
- BioForge Canada Limited, Halifax, B3N3B9, NS, Canada
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Leong SL, Gras S, Grant EJ. Fighting flu: novel CD8 + T-cell targets are required for future influenza vaccines. Clin Transl Immunology 2024; 13:e1491. [PMID: 38362528 PMCID: PMC10867544 DOI: 10.1002/cti2.1491] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2023] [Revised: 01/29/2024] [Accepted: 01/30/2024] [Indexed: 02/17/2024] Open
Abstract
Seasonal influenza viruses continue to cause severe medical and financial complications annually. Although there are many licenced influenza vaccines, there are billions of cases of influenza infection every year, resulting in the death of over half a million individuals. Furthermore, these figures can rise in the event of a pandemic, as seen throughout history, like the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic (50 million deaths) and the 1968 Hong Kong influenza pandemic (~4 million deaths). In this review, we have summarised many of the currently licenced influenza vaccines available across the world and current vaccines in clinical trials. We then briefly discuss the important role of CD8+ T cells during influenza infection and why future influenza vaccines should consider targeting CD8+ T cells. Finally, we assess the current landscape of known immunogenic CD8+ T-cell epitopes and highlight the knowledge gaps required to be filled for the design of rational future influenza vaccines that incorporate CD8+ T cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samuel Liwei Leong
- Department of Biochemistry and Chemistry, La Trobe Institute for Molecular ScienceLa Trobe UniversityBundooraVICAustralia
| | - Stephanie Gras
- Department of Biochemistry and Chemistry, La Trobe Institute for Molecular ScienceLa Trobe UniversityBundooraVICAustralia
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biomedicine Discovery InstituteMonash UniversityClaytonVICAustralia
| | - Emma J Grant
- Department of Biochemistry and Chemistry, La Trobe Institute for Molecular ScienceLa Trobe UniversityBundooraVICAustralia
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biomedicine Discovery InstituteMonash UniversityClaytonVICAustralia
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Crawford C, Guazzelli L, McConnell SA, McCabe O, d’Errico C, Greengo SD, Wear MP, Jedlicka AE, Casadevall A, Oscarson S. Synthetic Glycans Reveal Determinants of Antibody Functional Efficacy against a Fungal Pathogen. ACS Infect Dis 2024; 10:475-488. [PMID: 37856427 PMCID: PMC10862557 DOI: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.3c00447] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2023] [Indexed: 10/21/2023]
Abstract
Antibodies play a vital role in the immune response to infectious diseases and can be administered passively to protect patients. In the case of Cryptococcus neoformans, a WHO critical priority fungal pathogen, infection results in antibodies targeting capsular glucuronoxylomannan (GXM). These antibodies yield protective, non-protective, and disease-enhancing outcomes when administered passively. However, it was unknown how these distinct antibodies recognized their antigens at the molecular level, leading to the hypothesis that they may target different GXM epitopes. To test this hypothesis, we constructed a microarray containing 26 glycans representative of those found in highly virulent cryptococcal strains and utilized it to study 16 well-characterized monoclonal antibodies. Notably, we found that protective and non-protective antibodies shared conserved reactivity to the M2 motif of GXM, irrespective of the strain used in infection or GXM-isolated to produce a conjugate vaccine. Here, only two antibodies, 12A1 and 18B7, exhibited diverse trivalent GXM motif reactivity. IgG antibodies associated with protective responses showed cross-reactivity to at least two GXM motifs. This molecular understanding of antibody binding epitopes was used to map the antigenic diversity of two Cryptococcus neoformans strains, which revealed the exceptional complexity of fungal capsular polysaccharides. A multi-GXM motif vaccine holds the potential to effectively address this antigenic diversity. Collectively, these findings underscore the context-dependent nature of antibody function and challenge the classification of anti-GXM epitopes as either "protective" or "non-protective".
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Affiliation(s)
- Conor
J. Crawford
- Centre
for Synthesis and Chemical Biology, University
College Dublin, Belfield D04 V1W8, Dublin 4, Ireland
- Department
of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, United States
| | - Lorenzo Guazzelli
- Centre
for Synthesis and Chemical Biology, University
College Dublin, Belfield D04 V1W8, Dublin 4, Ireland
| | - Scott A. McConnell
- Department
of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, United States
| | - Orla McCabe
- Centre
for Synthesis and Chemical Biology, University
College Dublin, Belfield D04 V1W8, Dublin 4, Ireland
| | - Clotilde d’Errico
- Centre
for Synthesis and Chemical Biology, University
College Dublin, Belfield D04 V1W8, Dublin 4, Ireland
| | - Seth D. Greengo
- Department
of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, United States
| | - Maggie P. Wear
- Department
of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, United States
| | - Anne E. Jedlicka
- Department
of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, United States
| | - Arturo Casadevall
- Department
of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, United States
| | - Stefan Oscarson
- Centre
for Synthesis and Chemical Biology, University
College Dublin, Belfield D04 V1W8, Dublin 4, Ireland
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10
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Dashti F, Gregory I. Comparative effectiveness and tolerability of dual and triple combination inhaler therapies for adolescents and adults with asthma. Clin Exp Allergy 2024; 54:90-92. [PMID: 38353126 DOI: 10.1111/cea.14458] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2024] [Accepted: 01/22/2024] [Indexed: 02/16/2024]
Affiliation(s)
- Fares Dashti
- North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust, London, UK
| | - Ian Gregory
- North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust, London, UK
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11
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Suliman BA. Potential clinical implications of molecular mimicry-induced autoimmunity. Immun Inflamm Dis 2024; 12:e1178. [PMID: 38415936 PMCID: PMC10832321 DOI: 10.1002/iid3.1178] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2023] [Revised: 01/16/2024] [Accepted: 01/18/2024] [Indexed: 02/29/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Molecular mimicry is hypothesized to be a mechanism by which autoimmune diseases are triggered. It refers to sequence or structural homology between foreign antigens and self-antigens, which can activate cross-reactive lymphocytes that attack host tissues. Elucidating the role of molecular mimicry in human autoimmunity could have important clinical implications. OBJECTIVE To review evidence for the role of molecular mimicry in major autoimmune diseases and discuss potential clinical implications. METHODS Comprehensive literature review of clinical trials, observational studies, animal models, and immunology studies on molecular mimicry in multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Guillain-Barre syndrome, autoimmune myocarditis, and primary biliary cirrhosis published from 2000-2023. RESULTS Substantial indirect evidence supports molecular mimicry as a contributor to loss of self-tolerance in several autoimmune conditions. Proposed microbial triggers include Epstein-Barr virus, coxsackievirus, Campylobacter jejuni, and bacterial commensals. Key mechanisms involve cross-reactive T cells and autoantibodies induced by epitope homology between microbial and self-antigens. Perpetuation of autoimmunity involves epitope spreading, inflammatory mediators, and genetic factors. CONCLUSIONS Molecular mimicry plausibly explains initial stages of autoimmune pathogenesis induced by infection or microbiota disturbances. Understanding mimicry antigens and pathways could enable improved prediction, monitoring, and antigen-specific immunotherapy for autoimmune disorders. However, definitive proof of causation in humans remains limited. Further research should focus on establishing clinical evidence and utility.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bandar A Suliman
- Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, College of Applied Medical SciencesTaibah UniversityMadinahSaudi Arabia
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12
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Prakash S, Dhanushkodi NR, Zayou L, Ibraim IC, Quadiri A, Coulon PG, Tifrea DF, Suzer B, Shaik AM, Chilukuri A, Edwards RA, Singer M, Vahed H, Nesburn AB, Kuppermann BD, Ulmer JB, Gil D, Jones TM, BenMohamed L. Cross-protection induced by highly conserved human B, CD4 +, and CD8 + T-cell epitopes-based vaccine against severe infection, disease, and death caused by multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern. Front Immunol 2024; 15:1328905. [PMID: 38318166 PMCID: PMC10839970 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1328905] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2023] [Accepted: 01/02/2024] [Indexed: 02/07/2024] Open
Abstract
Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has created one of the largest global health crises in almost a century. Although the current rate of Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections has decreased significantly, the long-term outlook of COVID-19 remains a serious cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, with the mortality rate still substantially surpassing even that recorded for influenza viruses. The continued emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs), including multiple heavily mutated Omicron sub-variants, has prolonged the COVID-19 pandemic and underscores the urgent need for a next-generation vaccine that will protect from multiple SARS-CoV-2 VOCs. Methods We designed a multi-epitope-based coronavirus vaccine that incorporated B, CD4+, and CD8+ T- cell epitopes conserved among all known SARS-CoV-2 VOCs and selectively recognized by CD8+ and CD4+ T-cells from asymptomatic COVID-19 patients irrespective of VOC infection. The safety, immunogenicity, and cross-protective immunity of this pan-variant SARS-CoV-2 vaccine were studied against six VOCs using an innovative triple transgenic h-ACE-2-HLA-A2/DR mouse model. Results The pan-variant SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (i) is safe , (ii) induces high frequencies of lung-resident functional CD8+ and CD4+ TEM and TRM cells , and (iii) provides robust protection against morbidity and virus replication. COVID-19-related lung pathology and death were caused by six SARS-CoV-2 VOCs: Alpha (B.1.1.7), Beta (B.1.351), Gamma or P1 (B.1.1.28.1), Delta (lineage B.1.617.2), and Omicron (B.1.1.529). Conclusion A multi-epitope pan-variant SARS-CoV-2 vaccine bearing conserved human B- and T- cell epitopes from structural and non-structural SARS-CoV-2 antigens induced cross-protective immunity that facilitated virus clearance, and reduced morbidity, COVID-19-related lung pathology, and death caused by multiple SARS-CoV-2 VOCs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Swayam Prakash
- Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, University of California Irvine, School of Medicine, Irvine, CA, United States
| | - Nisha R Dhanushkodi
- Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, University of California Irvine, School of Medicine, Irvine, CA, United States
| | - Latifa Zayou
- Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, University of California Irvine, School of Medicine, Irvine, CA, United States
| | - Izabela Coimbra Ibraim
- High Containment Facility, University of California Irvine, School of Medicine, Irvine, CA, United States
| | - Afshana Quadiri
- Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, University of California Irvine, School of Medicine, Irvine, CA, United States
| | - Pierre Gregoire Coulon
- Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, University of California Irvine, School of Medicine, Irvine, CA, United States
| | - Delia F Tifrea
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, the University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States
| | - Berfin Suzer
- Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, University of California Irvine, School of Medicine, Irvine, CA, United States
| | - Amin Mohammed Shaik
- Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, University of California Irvine, School of Medicine, Irvine, CA, United States
| | - Amruth Chilukuri
- Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, University of California Irvine, School of Medicine, Irvine, CA, United States
| | - Robert A Edwards
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, the University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States
| | - Mahmoud Singer
- Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, University of California Irvine, School of Medicine, Irvine, CA, United States
| | - Hawa Vahed
- Department of Vaccines and Immunotherapies, TechImmune, LLC, University Lab Partners, Irvine, CA, United States
| | - Anthony B Nesburn
- Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, University of California Irvine, School of Medicine, Irvine, CA, United States
| | - Baruch D Kuppermann
- Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, University of California Irvine, School of Medicine, Irvine, CA, United States
| | - Jeffrey B Ulmer
- Department of Vaccines and Immunotherapies, TechImmune, LLC, University Lab Partners, Irvine, CA, United States
| | - Daniel Gil
- Department of Vaccines and Immunotherapies, TechImmune, LLC, University Lab Partners, Irvine, CA, United States
| | - Trevor M Jones
- Department of Vaccines and Immunotherapies, TechImmune, LLC, University Lab Partners, Irvine, CA, United States
| | - Lbachir BenMohamed
- Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, University of California Irvine, School of Medicine, Irvine, CA, United States
- Department of Vaccines and Immunotherapies, TechImmune, LLC, University Lab Partners, Irvine, CA, United States
- Division of Infectious Diseases and Hospitalist Program, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, the University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States
- Institute for Immunology; University of California Irvine, School of Medicine, Irvine, CA, United States
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13
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Harhala MA, Gembara K, Baniecki K, Pikies A, Nahorecki A, Jędruchniewicz N, Kaźmierczak Z, Rybicka I, Klimek T, Witkiewicz W, Barczyk K, Kłak M, Dąbrowska K. Experimental Identification of Cross-Reacting IgG Hotspots to Predict Existing Immunity Evasion of SARS-CoV-2 Variants by a New Biotechnological Application of Phage Display. Viruses 2023; 16:58. [PMID: 38257758 PMCID: PMC10820762 DOI: 10.3390/v16010058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2023] [Revised: 12/20/2023] [Accepted: 12/22/2023] [Indexed: 01/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Multiple pathogens are competing against the human immune response, leading to outbreaks that are increasingly difficult to control. For example, the SARS-CoV-2 virus continually evolves, giving rise to new variants. The ability to evade the immune system is a crucial factor contributing to the spread of these variants within the human population. With the continuous emergence of new variants, it is challenging to comprehend all the possible combinations of previous infections, various vaccination types, and potential exposure to new variants in an individual patient. Rather than conducting variant-to-variant comparisons, an efficient approach could involve identifying key protein regions associated with the immune evasion of existing immunity against the virus. In this study, we propose a new biotechnological application of bacteriophages, the phage display platform for experimental identification of regions (linear epitopes) that may function as cross-reacting IgG hotspots in SARS-CoV-2 structural proteins. A total of 34,949 epitopes derived from genomes of all SARS-CoV-2 variants deposited prior to our library design were tested in a single assay. Cross-reacting IgG hotspots are protein regions frequently recognized by cross-reacting antibodies in many variants. The assay facilitated the one-step identification of immunogenic regions of proteins that effectively induced specific IgG in SARS-CoV-2-infected patients. We identified four regions demonstrating both significant immunogenicity and the activity of a cross-reacting IgG hotspot in protein S (located at NTD, RBD, HR1, and HR2/TM domains) and two such regions in protein N (at 197-280 and 358-419 aa positions). This novel method for identifying cross-reacting IgG hotspots holds promise for informing vaccine design and serological diagnostics for COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marek Adam Harhala
- Research and Development Center, Regional Specialist Hospital in Wrocław, Kamieńskiego 73a St., 51-124 Wrocław, Poland; (M.A.H.); (K.G.); (N.J.); (Z.K.); (T.K.); (W.W.); (M.K.)
- Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, Weigla 12 St., 53-114 Wrocław, Poland;
| | - Katarzyna Gembara
- Research and Development Center, Regional Specialist Hospital in Wrocław, Kamieńskiego 73a St., 51-124 Wrocław, Poland; (M.A.H.); (K.G.); (N.J.); (Z.K.); (T.K.); (W.W.); (M.K.)
- Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, Weigla 12 St., 53-114 Wrocław, Poland;
| | - Krzysztof Baniecki
- Healthcare Centre in Bolesławiec, Jeleniogórska 4, 59-700 Bolesławiec, Poland; (K.B.); (A.P.); (A.N.); (K.B.)
| | - Aleksandra Pikies
- Healthcare Centre in Bolesławiec, Jeleniogórska 4, 59-700 Bolesławiec, Poland; (K.B.); (A.P.); (A.N.); (K.B.)
| | - Artur Nahorecki
- Healthcare Centre in Bolesławiec, Jeleniogórska 4, 59-700 Bolesławiec, Poland; (K.B.); (A.P.); (A.N.); (K.B.)
| | - Natalia Jędruchniewicz
- Research and Development Center, Regional Specialist Hospital in Wrocław, Kamieńskiego 73a St., 51-124 Wrocław, Poland; (M.A.H.); (K.G.); (N.J.); (Z.K.); (T.K.); (W.W.); (M.K.)
| | - Zuzanna Kaźmierczak
- Research and Development Center, Regional Specialist Hospital in Wrocław, Kamieńskiego 73a St., 51-124 Wrocław, Poland; (M.A.H.); (K.G.); (N.J.); (Z.K.); (T.K.); (W.W.); (M.K.)
- Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, Weigla 12 St., 53-114 Wrocław, Poland;
| | - Izabela Rybicka
- Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, Weigla 12 St., 53-114 Wrocław, Poland;
| | - Tomasz Klimek
- Research and Development Center, Regional Specialist Hospital in Wrocław, Kamieńskiego 73a St., 51-124 Wrocław, Poland; (M.A.H.); (K.G.); (N.J.); (Z.K.); (T.K.); (W.W.); (M.K.)
| | - Wojciech Witkiewicz
- Research and Development Center, Regional Specialist Hospital in Wrocław, Kamieńskiego 73a St., 51-124 Wrocław, Poland; (M.A.H.); (K.G.); (N.J.); (Z.K.); (T.K.); (W.W.); (M.K.)
| | - Kamil Barczyk
- Healthcare Centre in Bolesławiec, Jeleniogórska 4, 59-700 Bolesławiec, Poland; (K.B.); (A.P.); (A.N.); (K.B.)
| | - Marlena Kłak
- Research and Development Center, Regional Specialist Hospital in Wrocław, Kamieńskiego 73a St., 51-124 Wrocław, Poland; (M.A.H.); (K.G.); (N.J.); (Z.K.); (T.K.); (W.W.); (M.K.)
| | - Krystyna Dąbrowska
- Research and Development Center, Regional Specialist Hospital in Wrocław, Kamieńskiego 73a St., 51-124 Wrocław, Poland; (M.A.H.); (K.G.); (N.J.); (Z.K.); (T.K.); (W.W.); (M.K.)
- Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, Weigla 12 St., 53-114 Wrocław, Poland;
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Simula ER, Zarbo IR, Arru G, Sechi E, Meloni R, Deiana GA, Solla P, Sechi LA. Antibody Response to HERV-K and HERV-W Envelope Epitopes in Patients with Myasthenia Gravis. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 25:446. [PMID: 38203616 PMCID: PMC10778599 DOI: 10.3390/ijms25010446] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2023] [Revised: 12/20/2023] [Accepted: 12/25/2023] [Indexed: 01/12/2024] Open
Abstract
Myasthenia gravis is an antibody-mediated autoimmune neurological disorder characterized by impaired neuromuscular junction transmission, resulting in muscle weakness. Recently, the involvement of Human Endogenous Retroviruses (HERVs) in the pathophysiology of different immune-mediated and neurodegenerative diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, has been demonstrated. We aimed to investigate potential immune system involvement related to humoral responses targeting specific epitopes of HERV-K and HERV-W envelope proteins in myasthenia gravis. Myasthenia gravis patients were recruited in the Neurology Unit, while healthy controls were selected from the Blood Transfusion Center, both affiliated with AOU Sassari. Highly immunogenic antigens of HERV-K and HERV-W envelope proteins were identified using the Immune Epitope Database (IEDB) online tool. These epitopes were utilized in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) to detect autoantibodies in serum directed against these sequences. The study involved 39 Healthy Donors and 47 MG patients, further categorized into subgroups based on the presence of autoantibodies: MG-AchR Ab+ (n = 17), MG-MuSK Ab+ (n = 7), double seronegative patients (MG-DSN, n = 18), MG-LRP4 Ab + (n = 4), and one patient with no antibodies data (n = 1). Our findings revealed high levels of autoantibodies in myasthenia gravis patients directed against the HERV-K-env-su(19-37), HERV-K-env-su(109-126), HERV-K-env-su(164-186), HERV-W-env(93-108), HERV-W-env(129-14), and HERV-W-env(248-262) epitopes. Notably, these results remained highly significant even when patients were subdivided into MG-AchR Ab+ and MG-DSN subgroups. Correlation analysis further revealed significant positive associations between the antibody levels against HERV-K and HERV-W families in patients, suggesting a synergistic action of the two HERVs in the pathology context since this correlation is absent in the control group. This study marks the first identification of a specific humoral response directed against defined epitopes of HERV-K and HERV-W envelope proteins in myasthenia gravis patients. These findings lay the foundation for future investigations aimed at elucidating the molecular mechanisms driving this immune response. The detection of these autoantibodies suggests the potential for novel biomarkers, especially within the MG-DSN patient subgroup, addressing the need for new biomarkers in this population.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elena Rita Simula
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sassari, Viale San Pietro 43b, 07100 Sassari, Italy;
| | - Ignazio Roberto Zarbo
- Department of Medicine, Surgery and Pharmacy University of Sassari, Viale S. Pietro 10, 07100 Sassari, Italy; (I.R.Z.); (G.A.); (E.S.); (R.M.); (G.A.D.)
| | - Giannina Arru
- Department of Medicine, Surgery and Pharmacy University of Sassari, Viale S. Pietro 10, 07100 Sassari, Italy; (I.R.Z.); (G.A.); (E.S.); (R.M.); (G.A.D.)
| | - Elia Sechi
- Department of Medicine, Surgery and Pharmacy University of Sassari, Viale S. Pietro 10, 07100 Sassari, Italy; (I.R.Z.); (G.A.); (E.S.); (R.M.); (G.A.D.)
| | - Rossella Meloni
- Department of Medicine, Surgery and Pharmacy University of Sassari, Viale S. Pietro 10, 07100 Sassari, Italy; (I.R.Z.); (G.A.); (E.S.); (R.M.); (G.A.D.)
- Department of Medical Sciences and Public Health, University of Cagliari, 09124 Cagliari, Italy
| | - Giovanni Andrea Deiana
- Department of Medicine, Surgery and Pharmacy University of Sassari, Viale S. Pietro 10, 07100 Sassari, Italy; (I.R.Z.); (G.A.); (E.S.); (R.M.); (G.A.D.)
| | - Paolo Solla
- Department of Medicine, Surgery and Pharmacy University of Sassari, Viale S. Pietro 10, 07100 Sassari, Italy; (I.R.Z.); (G.A.); (E.S.); (R.M.); (G.A.D.)
| | - Leonardo Antonio Sechi
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sassari, Viale San Pietro 43b, 07100 Sassari, Italy;
- Struttura Complessa Microbiologia e Virologia, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria, 07100 Sassari, Italy
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15
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Calderon-Rico F, Bravo-Patiño A, Mendieta I, Perez-Duran F, Zamora-Aviles AG, Franco-Correa LE, Ortega-Flores R, Hernandez-Morales I, Nuñez-Anita RE. Glycoprotein 5-Derived Peptides Induce a Protective T-Cell Response in Swine against the Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus. Viruses 2023; 16:14. [PMID: 38275949 PMCID: PMC10819526 DOI: 10.3390/v16010014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2023] [Revised: 12/12/2023] [Accepted: 12/14/2023] [Indexed: 01/27/2024] Open
Abstract
We analyzed the T-cell responses induced by lineal epitopes of glycoprotein 5 (GP5) from PRRSV to explore the role of this protein in the immunological protection mediated by T-cells. The GP5 peptides were conjugated with a carrier protein for primary immunization and booster doses. Twenty-one-day-old pigs were allocated into four groups (seven pigs per group): control (PBS), vehicle (carrier), PTC1, and PTC2. Cytokine levels were measured at 2 days post-immunization (DPI) from serum samples. Cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTLs, CD8+) from peripheral blood were quantified via flow cytometry at 42 DPI. The cytotoxicity was evaluated by co-culturing primed lymphocytes with PRRSV derived from an infectious clone. The PTC2 peptide increased the serum concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines (i.e., TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-8) and cytokines that activate the adaptive cellular immunity associated with T-lymphocytes (i.e., IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, and IL-12). The concentration of CTLs (CD8+) was significantly higher in groups immunized with the peptides, which suggests a proliferative response in this cell population. Primed CTLs from immunized pigs showed cytolytic activity in PRRSV-infected cells in vitro. PTC1 and PTC2 peptides induced a protective T-cell-mediated response in pigs immunized against PRRSV, due to the presence of T epitopes in their sequences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fernando Calderon-Rico
- Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo, Km. 9.5 S/N carretera Morelia-Zinapecuaro, La Palma, Tarimbaro PC 58893, Mexico; (F.C.-R.); (A.B.-P.); (F.P.-D.); (A.G.Z.-A.); (L.E.F.-C.); (R.O.-F.)
| | - Alejandro Bravo-Patiño
- Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo, Km. 9.5 S/N carretera Morelia-Zinapecuaro, La Palma, Tarimbaro PC 58893, Mexico; (F.C.-R.); (A.B.-P.); (F.P.-D.); (A.G.Z.-A.); (L.E.F.-C.); (R.O.-F.)
| | - Irasema Mendieta
- Posgrado en Ciencias Quimico-Biológicas, Facultad de Quimica, Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro, Cerro de las Campanas S/N, Querétaro PC 76010, Mexico;
| | - Francisco Perez-Duran
- Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo, Km. 9.5 S/N carretera Morelia-Zinapecuaro, La Palma, Tarimbaro PC 58893, Mexico; (F.C.-R.); (A.B.-P.); (F.P.-D.); (A.G.Z.-A.); (L.E.F.-C.); (R.O.-F.)
| | - Alicia Gabriela Zamora-Aviles
- Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo, Km. 9.5 S/N carretera Morelia-Zinapecuaro, La Palma, Tarimbaro PC 58893, Mexico; (F.C.-R.); (A.B.-P.); (F.P.-D.); (A.G.Z.-A.); (L.E.F.-C.); (R.O.-F.)
| | - Luis Enrique Franco-Correa
- Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo, Km. 9.5 S/N carretera Morelia-Zinapecuaro, La Palma, Tarimbaro PC 58893, Mexico; (F.C.-R.); (A.B.-P.); (F.P.-D.); (A.G.Z.-A.); (L.E.F.-C.); (R.O.-F.)
| | - Roberto Ortega-Flores
- Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo, Km. 9.5 S/N carretera Morelia-Zinapecuaro, La Palma, Tarimbaro PC 58893, Mexico; (F.C.-R.); (A.B.-P.); (F.P.-D.); (A.G.Z.-A.); (L.E.F.-C.); (R.O.-F.)
| | - Ilane Hernandez-Morales
- Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores Unidad Leon, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Blv. UNAM No. 2011, Leon PC 37684, Guanajuato, Mexico;
| | - Rosa Elvira Nuñez-Anita
- Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo, Km. 9.5 S/N carretera Morelia-Zinapecuaro, La Palma, Tarimbaro PC 58893, Mexico; (F.C.-R.); (A.B.-P.); (F.P.-D.); (A.G.Z.-A.); (L.E.F.-C.); (R.O.-F.)
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16
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Ettinger RA, Buitinga M, Vandamme C, Afonso G, Gomez R, Arribas-Layton D, Bissenova S, Speake C, Reijonen H, Kinnunen T, Overbergh L, Mallone R, Kwok WW, James EA. Technical Validation and Utility of an HLA Class II Tetramer Assay for Type 1 Diabetes: A Multicenter Study. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2023; 109:183-196. [PMID: 37474341 DOI: 10.1210/clinem/dgad434] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2023] [Revised: 06/28/2023] [Accepted: 06/17/2023] [Indexed: 07/22/2023]
Abstract
CONTEXT Validated assays to measure autoantigen-specific T-cell frequency and phenotypes are needed for assessing the risk of developing diabetes, monitoring disease progression, evaluating responses to treatment, and personalizing antigen-based therapies. OBJECTIVE Toward this end, we performed a technical validation of a tetramer assay for HLA-DRA-DRB1*04:01, a class II allele that is strongly associated with susceptibility to type 1 diabetes (T1D). METHODS HLA-DRA-DRB1*04:01-restricted T cells specific for immunodominant epitopes from islet cell antigens GAD65, IGRP, preproinsulin, and ZnT8, and a reference influenza epitope, were enumerated and phenotyped in a single staining tube with a tetramer assay. Single and multicenter testing was performed, using a clone-spiked specimen and replicate samples from T1D patients, with a target coefficient of variation (CV) less than 30%. The same assay was applied to an exploratory cross-sectional sample set with 24 T1D patients to evaluate the utility of the assay. RESULTS Influenza-specific T-cell measurements had mean CVs of 6% for the clone-spiked specimen and 11% for T1D samples in single-center testing, and 20% and 31%, respectively, for multicenter testing. Islet-specific T-cell measurements in these same samples had mean CVs of 14% and 23% for single-center and 23% and 41% for multicenter testing. The cross-sectional study identified relationships between T-cell frequencies and phenotype and disease duration, sex, and autoantibodies. A large fraction of the islet-specific T cells exhibited a naive phenotype. CONCLUSION Our results demonstrate that the assay is reproducible and useful to characterize islet-specific T cells and identify correlations between T-cell measures and clinical traits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruth A Ettinger
- Center for Translational Immunology, Benaroya Research Institute, Seattle, WA 98101, USA
| | - Mijke Buitinga
- Laboratory for Clinical and Experimental Endocrinology, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Céline Vandamme
- Department of Clinical Microbiology, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Eastern Finland, 70210 Kuopio, Finland
| | - Georgia Afonso
- Diabetes and Autoimmunity Research Laboratory, Université Paris Cité, Institut Cochin, CNRS, INSERM, 75014 Paris, France
| | - Rebecca Gomez
- Center for Translational Immunology, Benaroya Research Institute, Seattle, WA 98101, USA
| | - David Arribas-Layton
- Department of Immunology and Theranostics, City of Hope Medical Center, Beckman Research Institute, Duarte, CA 91010, USA
| | - Samal Bissenova
- Laboratory for Clinical and Experimental Endocrinology, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Cate Speake
- Center for Interventional Immunology, Benaroya Research Institute, Seattle, WA 98101, USA
| | - Helena Reijonen
- Department of Immunology and Theranostics, City of Hope Medical Center, Beckman Research Institute, Duarte, CA 91010, USA
| | - Tuure Kinnunen
- Department of Clinical Microbiology, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Eastern Finland, 70210 Kuopio, Finland
- Eastern Finland Laboratory Centre (ISLAB), 70210 Kuopio, Finland
| | - Lut Overbergh
- Laboratory for Clinical and Experimental Endocrinology, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Roberto Mallone
- Diabetes and Autoimmunity Research Laboratory, Université Paris Cité, Institut Cochin, CNRS, INSERM, 75014 Paris, France
- Department of Internal Medicine, Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris, Service de Diabétologie et Immunologie Clinique, Cochin Hospital, 75014 Paris, France
| | - William W Kwok
- Center for Translational Immunology, Benaroya Research Institute, Seattle, WA 98101, USA
| | - Eddie A James
- Center for Translational Immunology, Benaroya Research Institute, Seattle, WA 98101, USA
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17
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Liu X, Li J, Deng J, Zhao J, Zhao G, Zhang T, Jiang H, Liang B, Xing D, Wang J. Targeting Trop2 in solid tumors: a look into structures and novel epitopes. Front Immunol 2023; 14:1332489. [PMID: 38179054 PMCID: PMC10765514 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1332489] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2023] [Accepted: 12/07/2023] [Indexed: 01/06/2024] Open
Abstract
Trophoblast cell surface antigen 2 (Trop2) exhibits limited expression in normal tissues but is over-expressed across various solid tumors. The effectiveness of anti-Trop2 antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) in managing breast cancer validates Trop2 as a promising therapeutic target for cancer treatment. However, excessive toxicity and a low response rate of ADCs pose ongoing challenges. Safer and more effective strategies should be developed for Trop2-positive cancers. The dynamic structural attributes and the oligomeric assembly of Trop2 present formidable obstacles to the progression of innovative targeted therapeutics. In this review, we summarize recent advancements in understanding Trop2's structure and provide an overview of the epitope characteristics of Trop2-targeted agents. Furthermore, we discuss the correlation between anti-Trop2 agents' epitopes and their respective functions, particularly emphasizing their efficacy and specificity in targeted therapies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xinlin Liu
- The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China
- Qingdao Cancer Institute, Qingdao, China
| | - Jiyixuan Li
- The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China
- Qingdao Cancer Institute, Qingdao, China
| | - Junwen Deng
- The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China
- Qingdao Cancer Institute, Qingdao, China
| | - Jianan Zhao
- The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China
- Qingdao Cancer Institute, Qingdao, China
| | - Gaoxiang Zhao
- The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China
- Qingdao Cancer Institute, Qingdao, China
| | - Tingting Zhang
- The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China
- Qingdao Cancer Institute, Qingdao, China
| | - Hongfei Jiang
- The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China
- Qingdao Cancer Institute, Qingdao, China
| | - Bing Liang
- The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China
- Qingdao Cancer Institute, Qingdao, China
| | - Dongming Xing
- The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China
- Qingdao Cancer Institute, Qingdao, China
- School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Jie Wang
- The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China
- Qingdao Cancer Institute, Qingdao, China
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18
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Pires Farias J, Andreata-Santos R, Dalety da Silva Brito R, Silva Souza M, Moreira Costa Fogaça M, Ramos Pinheiro J, Ferreira da Cruz E, Liang W, Simões RDC, Barros Luiz W, Birbrair A, Oliveira Vidal P, Terzi Maricato J, Torres Braconi C, Ferreira LCDS, Ramos Janini LM, Amorim JH. The fourth COVID-19 vaccine dose increased the neutralizing antibody response against the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant in a diverse Brazilian population. Microbiol Spectr 2023; 11:e0285723. [PMID: 37909777 PMCID: PMC10714775 DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.02857-23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2023] [Accepted: 09/25/2023] [Indexed: 11/03/2023] Open
Abstract
IMPORTANCE Several additional COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered in the Brazilian population to prevent the disease caused by the B.1.1.529 (Omicron) variant. The efficacy of a third dose as a booster is already well described. However, it is important to clarify the humoral immune response gain induced by a fourth dose. In this study, we evaluate the effect of the fourth COVID-19 vaccine dose in a diverse Brazilian population, considering a real-life context. Our study reveals that the fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine increased the neutralizing antibody response against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron and significantly contributed in the reduction of the disease caused by this variant.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jéssica Pires Farias
- Western Bahia Virology Institute, Center of Biological Sciences and Health, Federal University of Western Bahia, Barreiras, Bahia, Brazil
| | - Robert Andreata-Santos
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, Paulista School of Medicine, Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Ruth Dalety da Silva Brito
- Western Bahia Virology Institute, Center of Biological Sciences and Health, Federal University of Western Bahia, Barreiras, Bahia, Brazil
| | - Milena Silva Souza
- Western Bahia Virology Institute, Center of Biological Sciences and Health, Federal University of Western Bahia, Barreiras, Bahia, Brazil
- Department of Biological Sciences, State University of Santa Cruz, Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil
| | - Mayanna Moreira Costa Fogaça
- Western Bahia Virology Institute, Center of Biological Sciences and Health, Federal University of Western Bahia, Barreiras, Bahia, Brazil
| | - Josilene Ramos Pinheiro
- Western Bahia Virology Institute, Center of Biological Sciences and Health, Federal University of Western Bahia, Barreiras, Bahia, Brazil
| | - Edgar Ferreira da Cruz
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, Paulista School of Medicine, Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Willian Liang
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, Paulista School of Medicine, Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Rafael da Conceição Simões
- Western Bahia Virology Institute, Center of Biological Sciences and Health, Federal University of Western Bahia, Barreiras, Bahia, Brazil
| | - Wilson Barros Luiz
- Department of Biological Sciences, State University of Santa Cruz, Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil
| | - Alexander Birbrair
- Department of Dermatology, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
- Department of Pathology, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
- Department of Radiology, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, New York, USA
| | - Paloma Oliveira Vidal
- Western Bahia Virology Institute, Center of Biological Sciences and Health, Federal University of Western Bahia, Barreiras, Bahia, Brazil
| | - Juliana Terzi Maricato
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, Paulista School of Medicine, Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Carla Torres Braconi
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, Paulista School of Medicine, Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Luís Carlos de Souza Ferreira
- Department of Microbiology, Biomedical Sciences Institute, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
- Scientific Platform Pasteur USP, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Luiz Mário Ramos Janini
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, Paulista School of Medicine, Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
- Department of Medicine, Division of Infectology, Federal University of São Paulo, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Jaime Henrique Amorim
- Western Bahia Virology Institute, Center of Biological Sciences and Health, Federal University of Western Bahia, Barreiras, Bahia, Brazil
- Department of Biological Sciences, State University of Santa Cruz, Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil
- Department of Microbiology, Biomedical Sciences Institute, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
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19
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Ho QY, Phang CY, Liew IT, Lai ML, Tien CSY, Thangaraju S, Chan M, Kee T. Unrepresented human leucocyte antigen alleles in single-antigen bead assays: A single-centre cohort study. Int J Immunogenet 2023; 50:306-315. [PMID: 37776087 DOI: 10.1111/iji.12639] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2023] [Revised: 08/25/2023] [Accepted: 09/22/2023] [Indexed: 10/01/2023]
Abstract
Human leucocyte antigen (HLA) alleles may generate antibodies that are undetectable by routine single-antigen beads (SABs) assays if their unique epitopes are unrepresented. We aimed to describe the prevalence and explore the potential impact of unrepresented HLA alleles in standard SAB kits in our cohort. All individuals who had undergone two-field HLA typing (HLA-A/B/C/DRB1/DQA1/-DQB1/-DPA1/-DPB1) from February 2021 to July 2023 were included. Two-field HLA-DRB3/4/5 typing was imputed. Each unrepresented allele was compared with the most similar represented allele in the standard LABScreen, LABScreen ExPlex (One Lambda) and the LIFECODES (Immucor) SAB kits. Differences in eplet expression (HLA Eplet Registry) were identified. Differences in three-dimensional molecular structures were visualized using generated models (SWISS-MODEL). Two-field HLA typing was performed for 116 individuals. Overall, 16.7% of all HLA alleles, found in 36.2% of individuals, were unrepresented by all SAB test kits. Four eplets, found in 12.9% of individuals, were unrepresented in at least 1 SAB kit. Non-Chinese individuals were more likely to have unrepresented HLA alleles and eplets than Chinese individuals. There were differences in HLA allele and eplet representation amongst the different SAB test kits. Use of supplementary SAB test kits may improve HLA allele and eplet representation. Although some HLA alleles were unrepresented, most epitopes were represented in current SAB kits. However, some unrepresented alleles may contain epitopes which may generate undetectable antibodies. Further studies may be needed to investigate the potential clinical impact of these unrepresented alleles and eplets, especially in certain ethnic populations or at-risk individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Quan Yao Ho
- Department of Renal Medicine, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore, Singapore
- SingHealth Duke-NUS Transplant Centre, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Chew Yen Phang
- Blood Services Group, Health Sciences Authority, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Ian Tatt Liew
- Department of Renal Medicine, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore, Singapore
- SingHealth Duke-NUS Transplant Centre, Singapore, Singapore
| | - May Ling Lai
- Blood Services Group, Health Sciences Authority, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Carolyn Shan-Yeu Tien
- Department of Renal Medicine, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore, Singapore
- SingHealth Duke-NUS Transplant Centre, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Sobhana Thangaraju
- Department of Renal Medicine, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore, Singapore
- SingHealth Duke-NUS Transplant Centre, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Marieta Chan
- Blood Services Group, Health Sciences Authority, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Terence Kee
- Department of Renal Medicine, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore, Singapore
- SingHealth Duke-NUS Transplant Centre, Singapore, Singapore
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20
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Asadinezhad M, Khoshnood S, Asadollahi P, Ghafourian S, Sadeghifard N, Pakzad I, Zeinivand Y, Omidi N, Hematian A, Kalani BS. Development of innovative multi-epitope mRNA vaccine against Pseudomonas aeruginosa using in silico approaches. Brief Bioinform 2023; 25:bbad502. [PMID: 38189537 PMCID: PMC10772946 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbad502] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2023] [Revised: 10/18/2023] [Accepted: 12/13/2023] [Indexed: 01/09/2024] Open
Abstract
The rising issue of antibiotic resistance has made treating Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections increasingly challenging. Therefore, vaccines have emerged as a viable alternative to antibiotics for preventing P. aeruginosa infections in susceptible individuals. With its superior accuracy, high efficiency in stimulating cellular and humoral immune responses, and low cost, mRNA vaccine technology is quickly replacing traditional methods. This study aimed to design a novel mRNA vaccine by using in silico approaches against P. aeruginosa. The research team identified five surface and antigenic proteins and selected their appropriate epitopes with immunoinformatic tools. These epitopes were then examined for toxicity, allergenicity and homology. The researchers also checked their presentation and identification by major histocompatibility complex cells and other immune cells through valuable tools like molecular docking. They subsequently modeled a multi-epitope protein and optimized it. The mRNA was analyzed in terms of structure and stability, after which the immune system's response against the new vaccine was simulated. The results indicated that the designed mRNA construct could be an effective and promising vaccine that requires laboratory and clinical trials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maryam Asadinezhad
- Students Research Committee, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
- Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
| | - Saeed Khoshnood
- Students Research Committee, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
- Clinical Microbiology Research Center, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
| | - Parisa Asadollahi
- Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
- Clinical Microbiology Research Center, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
| | - Sobhan Ghafourian
- Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
- Clinical Microbiology Research Center, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
| | - Nourkhoda Sadeghifard
- Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
- Clinical Microbiology Research Center, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
| | - Iraj Pakzad
- Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
- Clinical Microbiology Research Center, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
| | - Yasaman Zeinivand
- Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
- Clinical Microbiology Research Center, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
| | - Nazanin Omidi
- Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
- Clinical Microbiology Research Center, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
| | - Ali Hematian
- Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
- Clinical Microbiology Research Center, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
| | - Behrooz Sadeghi Kalani
- Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
- Clinical Microbiology Research Center, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran
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21
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Piletsky SS, Baidyuk E, Piletska EV, Lezina L, Shevchenko K, Jones DJL, Cao TH, Singh R, Spivey AC, Aboagye EO, Piletsky SA, Barlev NA. Modulation of EGFR Activity by Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Nanoparticles Targeting Intracellular Epitopes. Nano Lett 2023; 23:9677-9682. [PMID: 37902816 PMCID: PMC10636853 DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c01374] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2023] [Revised: 10/15/2023] [Indexed: 10/31/2023]
Abstract
In recent years, molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles (nanoMIPs) have proven to be an attractive alternative to antibodies in diagnostic and therapeutic applications. However, several key questions remain: how suitable are intracellular epitopes as targets for nanoMIP binding? And to what extent can protein function be modulated via targeting specific epitopes? To investigate this, three extracellular and three intracellular epitopes of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) were used as templates for the synthesis of nanoMIPs which were then used to treat cancer cells with different expression levels of EGFR. It was observed that nanoMIPs imprinted with epitopes from the intracellular kinase domain and the extracellular ligand binding domain of EGFR caused cells to form large foci of EGFR sequestered away from the cell surface, caused a reduction in autophosphorylation, and demonstrated effects on cell viability. Collectively, this suggests that intracellular domain-targeting nanoMIPs can be a potential new tool for cancer therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stanislav S. Piletsky
- Department
of Chemistry, Imperial College London, Molecular Sciences Research Hub,
White City Campus, London W12 0BZ, United Kingdom
| | - Ekaterina Baidyuk
- L.A.
Orbeli Institute of Physiology NAS, Yerevan 0028, Republic of Armenia
- Institute
of Cytology, 197101 Saint-Petersburg, Russia
| | - Elena V. Piletska
- School
of Chemistry, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, United Kingdom
| | - Larissa Lezina
- Department
of Cancer Studies, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, United Kingdom
| | | | - Donald J. L. Jones
- Leicester
Cancer Research Centre, University of Leicester, Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester LE1 7RH, United Kingdom
- Department
of Cardiovascular Sciences, University of
Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, United
Kingdom
- National
Institute for Health Research, Leicester Biomedical Research Centre,
Glenfield Hospital, Leicester LE1 7RH, United
Kingdom
| | - Thong H. Cao
- Department
of Cardiovascular Sciences, University of
Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, United
Kingdom
- National
Institute for Health Research, Leicester Biomedical Research Centre,
Glenfield Hospital, Leicester LE1 7RH, United
Kingdom
| | - Rajinder Singh
- Leicester
Cancer Research Centre, University of Leicester, Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester LE1 7RH, United Kingdom
| | - Alan C. Spivey
- Department
of Chemistry, Imperial College London, Molecular Sciences Research Hub,
White City Campus, London W12 0BZ, United Kingdom
| | - Eric O. Aboagye
- Department
of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College
London, Hammersmith Campus, Du Cane Road, London SW7 2BX, United
Kingdom
| | - Sergey A. Piletsky
- School
of Chemistry, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, United Kingdom
| | - Nickolai A. Barlev
- Nazarbayev
University School of Medicine, 53 Kabanbay Batyr Ave, Nur-Sultan 010000, Republic
of Kazakhstan
- Sechenov
First Medical University, 119992 Moscow, Russia
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22
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Moten D, Batsalova T, Apostolova D, Mladenova T, Dzhambazov B, Teneva I. In Silico Design of a New Epitope-Based Vaccine against Grass Group 1 Allergens. Adv Respir Med 2023; 91:486-503. [PMID: 37987298 PMCID: PMC10660545 DOI: 10.3390/arm91060036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2023] [Revised: 10/09/2023] [Accepted: 11/06/2023] [Indexed: 11/22/2023]
Abstract
Allergic diseases are a global public health problem that affects up to 30% of the population in industrialized societies. More than 40% of allergic patients suffer from grass pollen allergy. Grass pollen allergens of group 1 and group 5 are the major allergens, since they induce allergic reactions in patients at high rates. In this study, we used immunoinformatic approaches to design an effective epitope-based vaccine against the grass group 1 allergens. After the alignment of all known pollen T-cell and B-cell epitopes from pollen allergens available in the public databases, the epitope GTKSEVEDVIPEGWKADTSY was identified as the most suitable for further analyses. The target sequence was subjected to immunoinformatics analyses to predict antigenic T-cell and B-cell epitopes. Population coverage analysis was performed for CD8+ and CD4+ T-cell epitopes. The selected T-cell epitopes (VEDVIPEGW and TKSEVEDVIPEGWKA) covered 78.87% and 98.20% of the global population and 84.57% and 99.86% of the population of Europe. Selected CD8+, CD4+ T-cell and B-cell epitopes have been validated by molecular docking analysis. CD8+ and CD4+ T-cell epitopes showed a very strong binding affinity to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I (MHC I) molecules and MHC class II (MHC II) molecules with global energy scores of -72.1 kcal/mol and -89.59 kcal/mol, respectively. The human IgE-Fc (PDB ID 4J4P) showed a lower affinity with B-cell epitope (ΔG = -34.4 kcal/mol), while the Phl p 2-specific human IgE Fab (PDB ID 2VXQ) had the lowest binding with the B-cell epitope (ΔG = -29.9 kcal/mol). Our immunoinformatics results demonstrated that the peptide GTKSEVEDVIPEGWKADTSY could stimulate the immune system and we performed ex vivo tests showed that the investigated epitope activates T cells isolated from patients with grass pollen allergy, but it is not recognized by IgE antibodies specific for grass pollen allergens. This confirms the importance of such studies to establish universal epitopes to serve as a basis for developing an effective vaccine against a particular group of allergens. Further in vivo studies are needed to validate the effectiveness of such a vaccine against grass pollen allergens.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dzhemal Moten
- Department of Developmental Biology, Faculty of Biology, Paisii Hilendarski University of Plovdiv, 24 Tsar Assen Str., 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria; (D.M.); (T.B.); (D.A.); (B.D.)
| | - Tsvetelina Batsalova
- Department of Developmental Biology, Faculty of Biology, Paisii Hilendarski University of Plovdiv, 24 Tsar Assen Str., 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria; (D.M.); (T.B.); (D.A.); (B.D.)
| | - Desislava Apostolova
- Department of Developmental Biology, Faculty of Biology, Paisii Hilendarski University of Plovdiv, 24 Tsar Assen Str., 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria; (D.M.); (T.B.); (D.A.); (B.D.)
| | - Tsvetelina Mladenova
- Department of Botany and Biological Education, Faculty of Biology, Paisii Hilendarski University of Plovdiv, 24 Tsar Assen Str., 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria;
| | - Balik Dzhambazov
- Department of Developmental Biology, Faculty of Biology, Paisii Hilendarski University of Plovdiv, 24 Tsar Assen Str., 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria; (D.M.); (T.B.); (D.A.); (B.D.)
| | - Ivanka Teneva
- Department of Botany and Biological Education, Faculty of Biology, Paisii Hilendarski University of Plovdiv, 24 Tsar Assen Str., 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria;
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23
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da Silva Antunes R, Weiskopf D, Sidney J, Rubiro P, Peters B, Arlehamn CSL, Grifoni A, Sette A. The MegaPool Approach to Characterize Adaptive CD4+ and CD8+ T Cell Responses. Curr Protoc 2023; 3:e934. [PMID: 37966108 PMCID: PMC10662678 DOI: 10.1002/cpz1.934] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2023]
Abstract
Epitopes recognized by T cells are a collection of short peptide fragments derived from specific antigens or proteins. Immunological research to study T cell responses is hindered by the extreme degree of heterogeneity of epitope targets, which are usually derived from multiple antigens; within a given antigen, hundreds of different T cell epitopes can be recognized, differing from one individual to the next because T cell epitope recognition is restricted by the epitopes' ability to bind to MHC molecules, which are extremely polymorphic in different individuals. Testing large pools encompassing hundreds of peptides is technically challenging because of logistical considerations regarding solvent-induced toxicity. To address this issue, we developed the MegaPool (MP) approach based on sequential lyophilization of large numbers of peptides that can be used in a variety of assays to measure T cell responses, including ELISPOT, intracellular cytokine staining, and activation-induced marker assays, and that has been validated in the study of infectious diseases, allergies, and autoimmunity. Here, we describe the procedures for generating and testing MPs, starting with peptide synthesis and lyophilization, as well as a step-by-step guide and recommendations for their handling and experimental usage. Overall, the MP approach is a powerful strategy for studying T cell responses and understanding the immune system's role in health and disease. © 2023 Wiley Periodicals LLC. Basic Protocol 1: Generation of peptide pools ("MegaPools") Basic Protocol 2: MegaPool testing and quantitation of antigen-specific T cell responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ricardo da Silva Antunes
- Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI); La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Daniela Weiskopf
- Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI); La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - John Sidney
- Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI); La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Paul Rubiro
- Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI); La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Bjoern Peters
- Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI); La Jolla, CA, USA
- Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health, University of California, San Diego (UCSD), La Jolla, CA, USA
| | | | - Alba Grifoni
- Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI); La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Alessandro Sette
- Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI); La Jolla, CA, USA
- Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health, University of California, San Diego (UCSD), La Jolla, CA, USA
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24
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Wang X, Hu Y, Tan H, Dong X, Zhang S, Fu S, Gao J, Chen H, Liu G, Li X. Glutamine and lysine as common residues from epitopes on α-lactalbumin and β-lactoglobulin from cow milk identified by phage display technology. J Dairy Sci 2023; 106:7382-7395. [PMID: 37641259 DOI: 10.3168/jds.2022-23151] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2022] [Accepted: 04/30/2023] [Indexed: 08/31/2023]
Abstract
Cow milk is an important source of food protein for children; however, it could lead to allergy, especially for infants. α-Lactalbumin (α-LA) and β-lactoglobulin (β-LG) from whey protein make up a relatively high proportion of milk proteins and have received widespread attention as major allergens in milk. However, few studies have identified the epitopes of both proteins simultaneously. In this study, ImmunoCAP and indirect ELISA were first used for detection of sIgE to screen sera from allergic patients with high binding capacity for α-LA and β-LG. Subsequently, the mimotopes was biopanned by phage display technology and bioinformatics and 17 mimic peptide sequences were obtained. Aligned with the sequences of α-LA or β-LG, we identified one linear epitope on α-LA at AA 11-26 and 5 linear epitopes on β-LG at AA 9-29, AA 45-57, AA 77-80, AA 98-101, and AA 121-135, respectively. Meanwhile, the 8 conformational epitopes and their distributions of α-LA and β-LG were located using the Pepitope Server. Finally, glutamine and lysine were determined as common AA residues for the conformational epitopes both on α-LA and β-LG. Moreover, we found the addition of mouse anti-human IgE during the biopanning process did not significantly affect the identification of the epitopes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xinyu Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Resources, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China; School of Food Science and Technology, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China
| | - Yongxin Hu
- State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Resources, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China; School of Food Science and Technology, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China
| | - Hongkai Tan
- State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Resources, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China; School of Food Science and Technology, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China
| | - Xiang Dong
- Department of Allergology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China
| | - Shuchen Zhang
- Department of Allergy, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430014, China
| | - Siqi Fu
- State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Resources, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China; School of Food Science and Technology, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China
| | - Jinyan Gao
- State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Resources, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China; School of Food Science and Technology, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China; Jiangxi Province Key Laboratory of Food Allergy, Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330047, China
| | - Hongbing Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Resources, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China; Jiangxi Province Key Laboratory of Food Allergy, Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330047, China; Sino-German Joint Research Institute (Jiangxi-OAI), Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China
| | - Guanghui Liu
- Department of Allergology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China.
| | - Xin Li
- State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Resources, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China; School of Food Science and Technology, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China; Jiangxi Province Key Laboratory of Food Allergy, Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330047, China.
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Shikha S, Jogi MK, Jha R, Kumar RA, Sah T, Singh P, Sagar R, Kumar A, Marwal R, Ponnusamy K, Agarwal SM, Kumar RS, Arif N, Bharadwaj M, Singh S, Kumar P. Genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 omicron variants in Delhi reveals alterations in immunogenic regions in spike glycoprotein. Front Immunol 2023; 14:1209513. [PMID: 37849762 PMCID: PMC10577267 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1209513] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2023] [Accepted: 08/30/2023] [Indexed: 10/19/2023] Open
Abstract
The SARS-CoV-2 omicron variants keep accumulating a large number of mutations in the spike (S) protein, which contributes to greater transmissibility and a rapid rise to dominance within populations. The identification of mutations and their affinity to the cellular angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE-2) receptor and immune evasion in the Delhi NCR region was under-acknowledged. The study identifies some mutations (Y505 reversion, G339H, and R346T/N) in genomes from Delhi, India, and their probable implications for altering the immune response and binding affinity for ACE-2. The spike mutations have influenced the neutralizing activity of antibodies against the omicron variant, which shows partial immune escape. However, researchers are currently exploring various mitigation strategies to tackle the potential decline in efficacy or effectiveness against existing and future variants of SARS-CoV-2. These strategies include modifying vaccines to target specific variants, such as the omicron variant, developing multivalent vaccine formulations, and exploring alternative delivery methods. To address this, it is also necessary to understand the impact of these mutations from a different perspective, especially in terms of alterations in antigenic determinants. In this study, we have done whole genome sequencing (WGS) of SARS-CoV-2 in COVID-19 samples from Delhi, NCR, and analyzed the spike's mutation with an emphasis on antigenic alterations. The impact of mutation in terms of epitope formation, loss/gain of efficiency, and interaction of epitopes with antibodies has been studied. Some of the mutations or variant genomes seem to be the progenitors of the upcoming variants in India. Our analyses suggested that weakening interactions with antibodies may lead to immune resistance in the circulating genomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sristy Shikha
- Division of Molecular Biology, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research (NICPR), Noida, India
| | - Mukesh Kumar Jogi
- Division of Molecular Biology, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research (NICPR), Noida, India
- Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, India
| | - Ruchika Jha
- Department of Biotechnology, Vinoba Bhave University, Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, India
| | - Rana Amit Kumar
- Department of Biotechnology, Anugrah Narayan College, Patna, Bihar, India
| | - Tathagat Sah
- Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Beant College of Engineering and Technology, Gurdaspur, Punjab, India
| | - Pushpendra Singh
- Department of Biotechnology, Central University of Haryana, Mahendergarh, Haryana, India
| | - Ritu Sagar
- Department of Biotechnology, Central University of Haryana, Mahendergarh, Haryana, India
| | - Anuj Kumar
- Division of Molecular Biology, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research (NICPR), Noida, India
| | - Robin Marwal
- Biotechnology Division, National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi, India
| | | | - Subhash Mohan Agarwal
- Division of Molecular Biology, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research (NICPR), Noida, India
| | - R. Suresh Kumar
- Division of Molecular Biology, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research (NICPR), Noida, India
| | - Nazneen Arif
- Division of Molecular Biology, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research (NICPR), Noida, India
| | - Mausumi Bharadwaj
- Division of Molecular Biology, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research (NICPR), Noida, India
| | - Shalini Singh
- Division of Molecular Biology, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research (NICPR), Noida, India
| | - Pramod Kumar
- Division of Molecular Biology, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research (NICPR), Noida, India
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26
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Gupta Y, Baranwal M, Chudasama B. Immunoinformatics-Based Identification of the Conserved Immunogenic Peptides Targeting of Zika Virus Precursor Membrane Protein. Viral Immunol 2023; 36:503-519. [PMID: 37486711 DOI: 10.1089/vim.2023.0015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Zika virus infections lead to neurological complications such as congenital Zika syndrome and Guillain-Barré syndrome. Rising Zika infections in newborns and adults have triggered the need for vaccine development. In the current study, the precursor membrane (prM) protein of the Zika virus is explored for its functional importance and design of epitopes enriched conserved peptides with the usage of different immunoinformatics approach. Phylogenetic and mutational analyses inferred that the prM protein is highly conserved. Three conserved peptides containing multiple T and B cell epitopes were designed by employing different epitope prediction algorithms. IEDB population coverage analysis of selected peptides in six different continents has shown the population coverage of 60-99.8% (class I HLA) and 80-100% (class II HLA). Molecular docking of selected peptides/epitopes was carried out with each of class I and II HLA alleles using HADDOCK. A majority of peptide-HLA complex (pHLA) have HADDOCK scores found to be comparable and more than native-HLA complex representing the good binding interaction of peptides to HLA. Molecular dynamics simulation with best docked pHLA complexes revealed that pHLA complexes are stable with RMSD <5.5Å. Current work highlights the importance of prM as a strong antigenic protein and selected peptides have the potential to elicit humoral and cell-mediated immune responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yogita Gupta
- Department of Biotechnology, Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala, India
| | - Manoj Baranwal
- Department of Biotechnology, Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala, India
| | - Bhupendra Chudasama
- School of Physics & Materials Science, Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala, India
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27
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Rao V, Banerjee U, Sambaturu N, Chunchanur S, Ambica R, Chandra N. Pressured cytotoxic T cell epitope strength among SARS-CoV-2 variants correlates with COVID-19 severity. HLA 2023; 102:464-476. [PMID: 37134008 DOI: 10.1111/tan.15071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2022] [Revised: 02/13/2023] [Accepted: 04/11/2023] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
Heterogeneity in susceptibility among individuals to COVID-19 has been evident through the pandemic worldwide. Cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses generated against pathogens in certain individuals are known to impose selection pressure on the pathogen, thus driving emergence of new variants. In this study, we probe the role played by host genetic heterogeneity in terms of HLA-genotypes in determining differential COVID-19 severity in patients. We use bioinformatic tools for CTL epitope prediction to identify epitopes under immune pressure. Using HLA-genotype data of COVID-19 patients from a local cohort, we observe that the recognition of pressured epitopes from the parent strain Wuhan-Hu-1 correlates with COVID-19 severity. We also identify and rank list HLA-alleles and epitopes that offer protectivity against severe disease in infected individuals. Finally, we shortlist a set of 6 pressured and protective epitopes that represent regions in the viral proteome that are under high immune pressure across SARS-CoV-2 variants. Identification of such epitopes, defined by the distribution of HLA-genotypes among members of a population, could potentially aid in prediction of indigenous variants of SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vishal Rao
- Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India
| | - Ushashi Banerjee
- Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India
| | - Narmada Sambaturu
- Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India
- Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
| | - Sneha Chunchanur
- Department of Microbiology, Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI), Bangalore, India
| | - R Ambica
- Department of Microbiology, Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI), Bangalore, India
| | - Nagasuma Chandra
- Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India
- Center for BioSystems Science and Engineering (BSSE), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India
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Galicia MLC, Morales DJM, Pogado PGB, Quebrado AL, Herrera-Ong LR. Identification of potential CD8+ epitopes in pp62 polyprotein of African swine fever virus using computational immunology. BioTechnologia (Pozn) 2023; 104:221-231. [PMID: 37850118 PMCID: PMC10578124 DOI: 10.5114/bta.2023.130726] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2022] [Revised: 01/30/2023] [Accepted: 04/03/2023] [Indexed: 10/19/2023] Open
Abstract
The highly infectious African swine fever virus (ASFV) is currently the only known DNA arbovirus within the Asfarviridae family which primarily infects domestic pigs and wild boars. African swine fever (ASF) leads to a mortality rate of up to 100% which has caused massive socio-economic losses worldwide. Previous research indicates that ASFV's virulence can be attributed to polyprotein pp62, which plays a crucial role in viral assembly and core maturation. This particular study utilized in silico analysis to identify highly conserved cytotoxic T-cell epitopes in pp62 that can potentially serve as key components for future ASFV vaccines. To achieve this, the researchers retrieved, clustered, and aligned the peptide sequences of pp62. Subsequently, the aligned sequences were analyzed to identify epitopes that bind promiscuously to the swine major histocompatibility complex I (MHC I) alleles and exhibiting MHC IC50 values < 500 nM. Additionally, peptide sequences with positive proteasome and TAP scores were considered. Potential cross-reactivity was assessed by comparing the peptide sequences against available proteome sequences of Sus scrofa domesticus in various databases. Furthermore, molecular docking was conducted to evaluate the binding of candidate epitopes with swine leukocyte antigen-1*0401 (SLA-1*0401). The dissociation constants, binding energies, root mean square deviation, and root mean square fluctuation values for the SLA-epitope complexes were compared with a positive reference. In the course of the study, 21 highly conserved CD8+ epitopes were identified, out of which four were further assessed for their potential immunogenicity. The results demonstrated that the highly conserved CD8+ epitopes discovered in this study are promising for integration into future ASFV vaccine formulations. As preliminary data, it is anticipated that these findings will subsequently undergo in vitro and in vivo studies in the future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark Lester C. Galicia
- Department of Physical Sciences, College of Science, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines
| | - Dale Jonathan M. Morales
- Department of Physical Sciences, College of Science, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines
| | - Precious Grace B. Pogado
- Department of Physical Sciences, College of Science, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines
| | - Ashley L. Quebrado
- Department of Physical Sciences, College of Science, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines
| | - Leana Rich Herrera-Ong
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine, University of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines
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Abstract
Autoimmunity is defined by the presence of antibodies and/or T cells directed against self-components. Although of unknown etiology, autoimmunity commonly is associated with environmental factors such as infections, which have been reported to increase the risk of developing autoimmune diseases. Occasionally, similarities between infectious non-self and self-tissue antigens may contribute to immunological cross-reactivity in autoimmune diseases. These reactions may be interpreted as molecular mimicry, which describes cross-reactivity between foreign pathogens and self-antigens that have been reported to cause tissue damage and to contribute to the development of autoimmunity. By focusing on the nature of antibodies, cross-reactivity in general, and antibody-antigen interactions, this review aims to characterize the nature of potential cross-reactive immune reactions between infectious non-self and self-tissue antigens which may be associated with autoimmunity but may not actually be the cause of disease onset.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicole Hartwig Trier
- Department of Neurology, Rigshospitalet Glostrup, Valdemar Hansens Vej 1-23, 2600 Glostrup, Denmark
| | - Gunnar Houen
- Department of Neurology, Rigshospitalet Glostrup, Valdemar Hansens Vej 1-23, 2600 Glostrup, Denmark
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, 5230 Odense M, Denmark
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30
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Imdhiyas M, Sen S, Barman N, Buragohain L, Malik Y, Kumar S. Computational analysis of immunogenic epitopes in the p30 and p54 proteins of African swine fever virus. J Biomol Struct Dyn 2023; 41:7480-7489. [PMID: 36148815 DOI: 10.1080/07391102.2022.2123400] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2022] [Accepted: 09/02/2022] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Abstract
African swine fever (ASF) is a highly infectious viral disease of pigs, which causes acute fatal haemorrhage and is a severe concern to the global pork industry. The present study followed computational approaches to identify B- and T-cell epitopes for the p30 and p54 proteins of the African swine fever virus (ASFV) by interacting with the swine leukocyte antigen (SLA) alleles. The amino acid sequences of p30 and p54 were analysed for variability and relative solvent accessibility, and their three-dimensional structures were predicted and validated. Molecular dynamics simulation was performed to study the structural and dynamic properties of the protein. Six and five linear B-cell epitopes have been predicted for p30 and p54, respectively. Four and three discontinuous B-cell epitopes have been predicted for p30 and p54, respectively. Further, the top five T-cell epitopes for SLA-1, 2, and 3 have been listed for both proteins. These results can help us to understand the immunodominant regions in the p30 and p54 proteins of ASFV and potentially assist in designing peptide-based diagnostics and vaccines. Also, the identified T-cell epitopes may be considered for peptide-based vaccine design against ASFV.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohamed Imdhiyas
- Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, Assam, India
| | - Suvam Sen
- Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, Assam, India
| | - Nagendra Barman
- Department of Microbiology, College of Veterinary Science, Assam Agricultural University Khanapara Campus, Guwahati, Assam, India
| | - Lukumoni Buragohain
- Department of Microbiology, College of Veterinary Science, Assam Agricultural University Khanapara Campus, Guwahati, Assam, India
| | - Yashpal Malik
- College of Animal Biotechnology, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Science University (GADVASU), Ludhiana, Punjab, India
| | - Sachin Kumar
- Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, Assam, India
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Anderson CC, Bonney EA, Mueller TF, Corthay A, Havele C, Singh NJ, Øynebråten I, Bretscher PA. On antigen-specific signals, immune class regulation and energetics: Report III from the workshops on foundational concepts of immune regulation. Scand J Immunol 2023; 98:e13311. [PMID: 38112131 DOI: 10.1111/sji.13311] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2023] [Revised: 06/27/2023] [Accepted: 07/02/2023] [Indexed: 12/20/2023]
Abstract
This is a report from a one-week workshop held in Athens, Greece in July of 2022. The workshop aimed to identify emerging concepts relevant to the fundamentals of immune regulation and areas for future research. Theories of immune regulation emphasize the role of T cell help or co-stimulation (signal 2). The workshop participants considered how new data on the characteristics of agonist antigens, the role of the antigen receptor signals (signal 1) in driving fate decisions, the effect of energetics on immunity and a better understanding of class-control in the immune response, may impact theories of immune regulation. These ideas were discussed in the context of tumour immunology, autoimmunity, pregnancy and transplantation. Here we present the discussions as a narrative of different viewpoints to allow the reader to join the conversation. These discussions highlight the evolving understanding of the nature of specific antigen recognition and how both antigen-specific and non-specific mechanisms impact immune responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Colin C Anderson
- Department of Surgery, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- Alberta Diabetes and Transplant Institutes, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | - Elizabeth A Bonney
- Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of Vermont, Larner College of medicine, Burlington, Vermont, USA
| | - Thomas F Mueller
- Clinic of Nephrology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Alexandre Corthay
- Tumor Immunology Lab, Department of Pathology, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- Hybrid Technology Hub - Centre of Excellence, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Calliopi Havele
- Dept of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
| | - Nevil J Singh
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - Inger Øynebråten
- Tumor Immunology Lab, Department of Pathology, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- Hybrid Technology Hub - Centre of Excellence, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Peter A Bretscher
- Dept of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
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Eickhoff CS, Meza KA, Terry FE, Colbert CG, Blazevic A, Gutiérrez AH, Stone ET, Brien JD, Pinto AK, El Sahly HM, Mulligan MJ, Rouphael N, Alcaide ML, Tomashek KM, Focht C, Martin WD, Moise L, De Groot AS, Hoft DF. Identification of immunodominant T cell epitopes induced by natural Zika virus infection. Front Immunol 2023; 14:1247876. [PMID: 37705976 PMCID: PMC10497216 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1247876] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2023] [Accepted: 08/07/2023] [Indexed: 09/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Zika virus (ZIKV) is a flavivirus primarily transmitted by Aedes species mosquitoes, first discovered in Africa in 1947, that disseminated through Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands in the 2000s. The first ZIKV infections in the Americas were identified in 2014, and infections exploded through populations in Brazil and other countries in 2015/16. ZIKV infection during pregnancy can cause severe brain and eye defects in offspring, and infection in adults has been associated with higher risks of Guillain-Barré syndrome. We initiated a study to describe the natural history of Zika (the disease) and the immune response to infection, for which some results have been reported. In this paper, we identify ZIKV-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cell epitopes that induce responses during infection. Two screening approaches were utilized: an untargeted approach with overlapping peptide arrays spanning the entire viral genome, and a targeted approach utilizing peptides predicted to bind human MHC molecules. Immunoinformatic tools were used to identify conserved MHC class I supertype binders and promiscuous class II binding peptide clusters predicted to bind 9 common class II alleles. T cell responses were evaluated in overnight IFN-γ ELISPOT assays. We found that MHC supertype binding predictions outperformed the bulk overlapping peptide approach. Diverse CD4+ T cell responses were observed in most ZIKV-infected participants, while responses to CD8+ T cell epitopes were more limited. Most individuals developed a robust T cell response against epitopes restricted to a single MHC class I supertype and only a single or few CD8+ T cell epitopes overall, suggesting a strong immunodominance phenomenon. Noteworthy is that many epitopes were commonly immunodominant across persons expressing the same class I supertype. Nearly all of the identified epitopes are unique to ZIKV and are not present in Dengue viruses. Collectively, we identified 31 immunogenic peptides restricted by the 6 major class I supertypes and 27 promiscuous class II epitopes. These sequences are highly relevant for design of T cell-targeted ZIKV vaccines and monitoring T cell responses to Zika virus infection and vaccination.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher S. Eickhoff
- Department of Internal Medicine, Saint Louis University, Division of Infectious Diseases, Allergy, and Immunology, Saint Louis, MO, United States
| | - Krystal A. Meza
- Department of Internal Medicine, Saint Louis University, Division of Infectious Diseases, Allergy, and Immunology, Saint Louis, MO, United States
| | | | - Chase G. Colbert
- Department of Internal Medicine, Saint Louis University, Division of Infectious Diseases, Allergy, and Immunology, Saint Louis, MO, United States
| | - Azra Blazevic
- Department of Internal Medicine, Saint Louis University, Division of Infectious Diseases, Allergy, and Immunology, Saint Louis, MO, United States
| | | | - E. Taylor Stone
- Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, MO, United States
| | - James D. Brien
- Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, MO, United States
| | - Amelia K. Pinto
- Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, MO, United States
| | - Hana M. El Sahly
- Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Mark J. Mulligan
- New York University Grossman School of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, New York, NY, United States
| | - Nadine Rouphael
- Emory University School of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Atlanta, GA, United States
| | - Maria L. Alcaide
- University of Miami, Division of Infectious Diseases, Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, United States
| | - Kay M. Tomashek
- Division of Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, United States
| | - Chris Focht
- The Emmes Company, LLC., Rockville, MD, United States
| | | | | | - Anne S. De Groot
- EpiVax, Inc., Providence, RI, United States
- University of Georgia Center for Vaccines and Immunology, Athens, GA, United States
| | - Daniel F. Hoft
- Department of Internal Medicine, Saint Louis University, Division of Infectious Diseases, Allergy, and Immunology, Saint Louis, MO, United States
- Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, MO, United States
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Szardenings M, Delaroque N, Kern K, Ramirez-Caballero L, Puder M, Ehrentreich-Förster E, Beige J, Zürner S, Popp G, Wolf J, Borte S. Detection of Antibodies against Endemic and SARS-CoV-2 Coronaviruses with Short Peptide Epitopes. Vaccines (Basel) 2023; 11:1403. [PMID: 37766081 PMCID: PMC10535424 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines11091403] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2023] [Revised: 08/08/2023] [Accepted: 08/17/2023] [Indexed: 09/29/2023] Open
Abstract
(1) Background: Coronavirus proteins are quite conserved amongst endemic strains (eCoV) and SARS-CoV-2. We aimed to evaluate whether peptide epitopes might serve as useful diagnostic biomarkers to stratify previous infections and COVID-19. (2) Methods: Peptide epitopes were identified at an amino acid resolution that applied a novel statistical approach to generate data sets of potential antibody binding peptides. (3) Results: Data sets from more than 120 COVID-19 or eCoV-infected patients, as well as vaccinated persons, have been used to generate data sets that have been used to search in silico for potential epitopes in proteins of SARS-CoV-2 and eCoV. Peptide epitopes were validated with >300 serum samples in synthetic peptide micro arrays and epitopes specific for different viruses, in addition to the identified cross reactive epitopes. (4) Conclusions: Most patients develop antibodies against non-structural proteins, which are useful general markers for recent infections. However, there are differences in the epitope patterns of COVID-19, and eCoV, and the S-protein vaccine, which can only be explained by a high degree of cross-reactivity between the viruses, a pre-existing immune response against some epitopes, and even an alternate processing of the vaccine proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Szardenings
- Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology (IZI), Perlickstr. 1, 04103 Leipzig, Germany; (N.D.); (K.K.); (S.Z.); (G.P.)
- epitopic GmbH, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany;
| | - Nicolas Delaroque
- Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology (IZI), Perlickstr. 1, 04103 Leipzig, Germany; (N.D.); (K.K.); (S.Z.); (G.P.)
| | - Karolin Kern
- Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology (IZI), Perlickstr. 1, 04103 Leipzig, Germany; (N.D.); (K.K.); (S.Z.); (G.P.)
- epitopic GmbH, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany;
| | - Lisbeth Ramirez-Caballero
- Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology (IZI), Perlickstr. 1, 04103 Leipzig, Germany; (N.D.); (K.K.); (S.Z.); (G.P.)
| | - Marcus Puder
- epitopic GmbH, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany;
| | - Eva Ehrentreich-Förster
- Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology, Branch Bioanalytics and Bioprocesses IZI-BB, Am Mühlenberg 13, 14476 Potsdam, Germany;
| | - Joachim Beige
- Martin-Luther-University Halle/Wittenberg, Medical Clinic 2, 06112 Halle, Germany;
| | - Sebastian Zürner
- Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology (IZI), Perlickstr. 1, 04103 Leipzig, Germany; (N.D.); (K.K.); (S.Z.); (G.P.)
- WINF/Informationsmanagement, University Leipzig, Grimmaische Straße 12, 04109 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Georg Popp
- Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology (IZI), Perlickstr. 1, 04103 Leipzig, Germany; (N.D.); (K.K.); (S.Z.); (G.P.)
| | - Johannes Wolf
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Hospital St. Georg, Delitzscher Strasse 141, 04129 Leipzig, Germany; (J.W.); (S.B.)
- ImmunoDeficiencyCenter Leipzig (IDCL), Jeffrey Modell Diagnostic and Research Center for Primary Immunodeficiency Diseases, Hospital St. Georg, Delitzscher Strasse 141, 04129 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Stephan Borte
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Hospital St. Georg, Delitzscher Strasse 141, 04129 Leipzig, Germany; (J.W.); (S.B.)
- ImmunoDeficiencyCenter Leipzig (IDCL), Jeffrey Modell Diagnostic and Research Center for Primary Immunodeficiency Diseases, Hospital St. Georg, Delitzscher Strasse 141, 04129 Leipzig, Germany
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Vecchio F, Carré A, Korenkov D, Zhou Z, Apaolaza P, Tuomela S, Burgos-Morales O, Snowhite I, Perez-Hernandez J, Brandao B, Afonso G, Halliez C, Kaddis J, Kent SC, Nakayama M, Richardson SJ, Vinh J, Verdier Y, Laiho J, Scharfmann R, Solimena M, Marinicova Z, Bismuth E, Lucidarme N, Sanchez J, Bustamante C, Gomez P, Buus S, You S, Pugliese A, Hyoty H, Rodriguez-Calvo T, Flodstrom-Tullberg M, Mallone R. Coxsackievirus infection induces direct pancreatic β-cell killing but poor anti-viral CD8+ T-cell responses. bioRxiv 2023:2023.08.19.553954. [PMID: 37662376 PMCID: PMC10473604 DOI: 10.1101/2023.08.19.553954] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/05/2023]
Abstract
Coxsackievirus B (CVB) infection of pancreatic β cells is associated with β-cell autoimmunity. We investigated how CVB impacts human β cells and anti-CVB T-cell responses. β cells were efficiently infected by CVB in vitro, downregulated HLA Class I and presented few, selected HLA-bound viral peptides. Circulating CD8+ T cells from CVB-seropositive individuals recognized only a fraction of these peptides, and only another sub-fraction was targeted by effector/memory T cells that expressed the exhaustion marker PD-1. T cells recognizing a CVB epitope cross-reacted with the β-cell antigen GAD. Infected β cells, which formed filopodia to propagate infection, were more efficiently killed by CVB than by CVB-reactive T cells. Thus, our in-vitro and ex-vivo data highlight limited T-cell responses to CVB, supporting the rationale for CVB vaccination trials for type 1 diabetes prevention. CD8+ T cells recognizing structural and non-structural CVB epitopes provide biomarkers to differentially follow response to infection and vaccination.
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Affiliation(s)
- Federica Vecchio
- Université Paris Cité, Institut Cochin, CNRS, INSERM, Paris, France
| | - Alexia Carré
- Université Paris Cité, Institut Cochin, CNRS, INSERM, Paris, France
| | - Daniil Korenkov
- Université Paris Cité, Institut Cochin, CNRS, INSERM, Paris, France
| | - Zhicheng Zhou
- Université Paris Cité, Institut Cochin, CNRS, INSERM, Paris, France
| | - Paola Apaolaza
- Institute of Diabetes Research, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Munich-Neuherberg, Germany
- German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), Neuherberg, Germany
| | - Soile Tuomela
- Center for Infectious Medicine, Department of medicine Huddinge, Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital Huddinge, Stockholm, Sweden
| | | | - Isaac Snowhite
- Diabetes Research Institute, Leonard Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, FL, USA
- Department of Diabetes Immunology, Arthur Riggs Diabetes and Metabolism Research Institute, Beckman Research Institute, City of Hope, Duarte, CA, USA
| | | | - Barbara Brandao
- Université Paris Cité, Institut Cochin, CNRS, INSERM, Paris, France
| | - Georgia Afonso
- Université Paris Cité, Institut Cochin, CNRS, INSERM, Paris, France
| | | | - John Kaddis
- Department of Diabetes Immunology, Arthur Riggs Diabetes and Metabolism Research Institute, Beckman Research Institute, City of Hope, Duarte, CA, USA
- Department of Diabetes and Cancer Discovery Science, Arthur Riggs Diabetes and Metabolism Research Institute, Beckman Research Institute, City of Hope, Duarte, CA, USA
| | - Sally C. Kent
- University of Massachusetts Medical Chan School, Diabetes Center of Excellence, Department of Medicine, Worcester, MA, USA
| | - Maki Nakayama
- Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, USA
| | - Sarah J. Richardson
- Islet Biology Exeter (IBEx), Exeter Centre of Excellence for Diabetes Research (EXCEED), Department of Clinical and Biomedical Sciences, University of Exeter Medical School, Exeter, UK
| | - Joelle Vinh
- ESPCI Paris, PSL University, Spectrométrie de Masse Biologique et Protéomique, CNRS UMR8249, Paris, France
| | - Yann Verdier
- ESPCI Paris, PSL University, Spectrométrie de Masse Biologique et Protéomique, CNRS UMR8249, Paris, France
| | - Jutta Laiho
- Tampere University, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology and Fimlab Laboratories, Tampere, Finland
| | | | - Michele Solimena
- Paul Langerhans Institute, Technical University Dresden, Germany
| | | | - Elise Bismuth
- Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris, Service d’Endocrinologie Pédiatrique, Robert Debré Hospital, Paris, France
| | - Nadine Lucidarme
- Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris, Service de Pédiatrie, Jean Verdier Hospital, Bondy, France
| | - Janine Sanchez
- Department of Pediatrics, Division of pediatric Endocrinology, Leonard Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, FL, USA
| | - Carmen Bustamante
- Department of Pediatrics, Division of pediatric Endocrinology, Leonard Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, FL, USA
| | - Patricia Gomez
- Department of Pediatrics, Division of pediatric Endocrinology, Leonard Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, FL, USA
| | - Soren Buus
- Panum Institute, Department of International Health, Immunology and Microbiology, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | | | - Sylvaine You
- Université Paris Cité, Institut Cochin, CNRS, INSERM, Paris, France
- Indiana Biosciences Research Institute, Indianapolis, IN, USA
| | - Alberto Pugliese
- Diabetes Research Institute, Leonard Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, FL, USA
- Department of Diabetes Immunology, Arthur Riggs Diabetes and Metabolism Research Institute, Beckman Research Institute, City of Hope, Duarte, CA, USA
| | - Heikki Hyoty
- Tampere University, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology and Fimlab Laboratories, Tampere, Finland
| | - Teresa Rodriguez-Calvo
- Institute of Diabetes Research, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Munich-Neuherberg, Germany
- German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), Neuherberg, Germany
| | - Malin Flodstrom-Tullberg
- Center for Infectious Medicine, Department of medicine Huddinge, Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital Huddinge, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Roberto Mallone
- Université Paris Cité, Institut Cochin, CNRS, INSERM, Paris, France
- Indiana Biosciences Research Institute, Indianapolis, IN, USA
- Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris, Service de Diabétologie et Immunologie Clinique, Cochin Hospital, Paris, France
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Mo Y, Ye Y, Peng L, Sun X, Zhong X, Wu R. The central helicase domain holds the major conformational epitopes of melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 autoantibodies. Rheumatology (Oxford) 2023:kead397. [PMID: 37551942 DOI: 10.1093/rheumatology/kead397] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2022] [Revised: 06/23/2023] [Accepted: 07/17/2023] [Indexed: 08/09/2023] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Autoantibodies against MDA5 serve as a biomarker for dermatomyositis (DM) and a risk factor for interstitial lung disease (ILD). MDA5 is a protein responsible for sensing RNA virus infection and activating signalling pathways against it. However, little is known about antigen epitopes on MDA5 autoantibodies. We aimed to determine the interaction of the MDA5 autoantibody-antigen epitope. METHODS Cell-based assays (CBAs), immunoprecipitation-immunoblot assays, and various immunoblotting techniques were used in the study. RESULTS We demonstrate that DM patient autoantibodies recognize MDA5 epitopes in a native conformation-dependent manner. Furthermore, we identified the central helicase domain formed by Hel1, Hel2i, Hel2, and pincer (3Hel) as the major epitopes. As proof of principle, the purified 3Hel efficiently absorbed MDA5 autoantibodies from patient sera through immunoprecipitation-immunoblot assay. CONCLUSION Our study uncovers the nature of antigen epitopes on MDA5 and provides guidance for diagnosis and targeted therapeutic approach development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yongxin Mo
- Department of Biotherapy Centre, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Yan Ye
- Department of Rheumatology, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Lisheng Peng
- Department of Neurology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Xiaobo Sun
- Department of Neurology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Xiaofen Zhong
- Department of Biotherapy Centre, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Rui Wu
- Department of Rehabilitation, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
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Eriksson C, Gunasekera S, Muhammad T, Zhang M, Laurén I, Mangsbo SM, Lord M, Göransson U. Epitopes Displayed in a Cyclic Peptide Scaffold Bind SARS-COV-2 Antibodies. Chembiochem 2023; 24:e202300103. [PMID: 37021633 DOI: 10.1002/cbic.202300103] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2023] [Revised: 04/03/2023] [Accepted: 04/05/2023] [Indexed: 04/07/2023]
Abstract
The SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 is a global health issue. The spread of the virus has resulted in seven million deaths to date. The emergence of new viral strains highlights the importance of continuous surveillance of the SARS-CoV-2 virus by using timely and accurate diagnostic tools. Here, we used a stable cyclic peptide scaffolds to present antigenic sequences derived from the spike protein that are reactive to SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Using peptide sequences from different domains of SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins, we grafted epitopes on the peptide scaffold sunflower trypsin inhibitor 1 (SFTI-1). These scaffold peptides were then used to develop an ELISA to detect SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in serum. We show that displaying epitopes on the scaffold improves reactivity overall. One of the scaffold peptides (S2_1146-1161_c) has reactivity equal to that of commercial assays, and shows diagnostic potential.
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Affiliation(s)
- Camilla Eriksson
- Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Uppsala University Biomedical Centre, Box 591, 75123, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Sunithi Gunasekera
- Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Uppsala University Biomedical Centre, Box 591, 75123, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Taj Muhammad
- Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Uppsala University Biomedical Centre, Box 591, 75123, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Mingshu Zhang
- Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Uppsala University Biomedical Centre, Box 591, 75123, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Ida Laurén
- Department of Pharmacy, Uppsala University Biomedical Centre, 75123, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Sara M Mangsbo
- Department of Pharmacy, Uppsala University Biomedical Centre, 75123, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Martin Lord
- Department of Pharmacy, Uppsala University Biomedical Centre, 75123, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Ulf Göransson
- Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Uppsala University Biomedical Centre, Box 591, 75123, Uppsala, Sweden
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Heng WT, Lim HX, Tan KO, Poh CL. Validation of Multi-epitope Peptides Encapsulated in PLGA Nanoparticles Against Influenza A Virus. Pharm Res 2023; 40:1999-2025. [PMID: 37344603 DOI: 10.1007/s11095-023-03540-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2023] [Accepted: 05/19/2023] [Indexed: 06/23/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Influenza is a highly contagious respiratory disease which poses a serious threat to public health globally, causing severe diseases in 3-5 million humans and resulting in 650,000 deaths annually. The current licensed seasonal influenza vaccines lacked cross-reactivity against novel emerging influenza strains as they conferred limited neutralising capabilities. To address the issue, we designed a multi-epitope peptide-based vaccine delivered by the self-adjuvanting PLGA nanoparticles against influenza infections. METHODS A total of six conserved peptides representing B- and T-cell epitopes of Influenza A were identified and they were formulated in either incomplete Freund's adjuvant containing CpG ODN 1826 or being encapsulated in PLGA nanoparticles for the evaluation of immunogenicity in BALB/c mice. RESULTS The self-adjuvanting PLGA nanoparticles encapsulating the six conserved peptides were capable of eliciting the highest levels of IgG and IFN- γ producing cells. In addition, the immunogenicity of the six peptides encapsulated in PLGA nanoparticles showed greater humoral and cellular mediated immune responses elicited by the mixture of six naked peptides formulated in incomplete Freund's adjuvant containing CpG ODN 1826 in the immunized mice. Peptide 3 from the mixture of six peptides was found to exert necrotic effect on CD3+ T-cells and this finding indicated that peptide 3 should be removed from the nanovaccine formulation. CONCLUSION The study demonstrated the self-adjuvanting properties of the PLGA nanoparticles as a delivery system without the need for incorporation of toxic and costly conventional adjuvants in multi-epitope peptide-based vaccines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wen Tzuen Heng
- Centre for Virus and Vaccine Research (CVVR), School of Medical and Life Sciences, Sunway University, No.5 Jalan Universiti, 47500, Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
| | - Hui Xuan Lim
- Centre for Virus and Vaccine Research (CVVR), School of Medical and Life Sciences, Sunway University, No.5 Jalan Universiti, 47500, Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
| | - Kuan Onn Tan
- Department of Biological Sciences, School of Medical and Life Sciences, Sunway University, No.5 Jalan Universiti, 47500, Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
| | - Chit Laa Poh
- Centre for Virus and Vaccine Research (CVVR), School of Medical and Life Sciences, Sunway University, No.5 Jalan Universiti, 47500, Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.
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Flegr J, Králová Lesná I, Zahradník D. Exposing and exploiting host-parasite arms race clues in SARS-CoV-2: a principally new method for improved T cell immunogenicity prediction. Biol Methods Protoc 2023; 8:bpad011. [PMID: 37497282 PMCID: PMC10366408 DOI: 10.1093/biomethods/bpad011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2023] [Revised: 06/04/2023] [Accepted: 06/08/2023] [Indexed: 07/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Computational prediction of T cell epitopes is a crucial component in the development of novel vaccines. T cells in a healthy vertebrate host can recognize as non-self only those peptides that are present in the parasite's proteins but absent in the host's proteins. This principle enables us to determine the current and past host specificity of a parasite and to predict peptides capable of eliciting a T cell response. Building upon the detailed mapping of T cell clone specificity for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antigens, we employed Monte Carlo tests to determine that empirically confirmed T cell-stimulating peptides have a significantly increased proportion of pentapeptides, hexapeptides and heptapeptides not found in the human proteome (P < 0.0001, Cohen's d > 4.9). We observed a lower density of potential pentapeptide targets for T cell recognition in the spike protein from the human-adapted SARS-CoV-2 ancestor compared to 10 other SARS-CoV-2 proteins originating from the horseshoe bat-adapted ancestor. Our novel method for predicting T cell immunogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 peptides is four times more effective than previous approaches. We recommend utilizing our theory-based method where efficient empirically based algorithms are unavailable, such as in the development of certain veterinary vaccines, and combining it with empirical methods in other cases for optimal results.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jaroslav Flegr
- Correspondence address. Jaroslav Flegr, Laboratory of Evolutionary Biology, Department of Philosophy and History of Science, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, 128 00, Viničná 7, Czech Republic. Tel: +420-221-951-821; E-mail:
| | - Ivana Králová Lesná
- Experimental Medicine Centre, Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Prague 140 21, Czech Republic
- Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care of the 1st Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague 169 02, Czech Republic
| | - Daniel Zahradník
- Laboratory of Evolutionary Biology, Department of Philosophy and History of Science, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
- Department of Biological Risks, The Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening, Průhonice, Czech Republic
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Palma M. Epitopes and Mimotopes Identification Using Phage Display for Vaccine Development against Infectious Pathogens. Vaccines (Basel) 2023; 11:1176. [PMID: 37514992 PMCID: PMC10384025 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines11071176] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2023] [Revised: 06/23/2023] [Accepted: 06/27/2023] [Indexed: 07/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Traditional vaccines use inactivated or weakened forms of pathogens which could have side effects and inadequate immune responses. To overcome these challenges, phage display has emerged as a valuable tool for identifying specific epitopes that could be used in vaccines. This review emphasizes the direct connection between epitope identification and vaccine development, filling a crucial gap in the field. This technique allows vaccines to be engineered to effectively stimulate the immune system by presenting carefully selected epitopes. Phage display involves screening libraries of random peptides or gene/genome fragments using serum samples from infected, convalescent, or vaccinated individuals. This method has been used to identify epitopes from various pathogens including SARS-CoV-2, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, hepatitis viruses, H5N1, HIV-1, Human T-lymphotropic virus 1, Plasmodium falciparum, Trypanosoma cruzi, and Dirofilaria repens. Bacteriophages offer advantages such as being immunogenic carriers, low production costs, and customization options, making them a promising alternative to traditional vaccines. The purpose of this study has been to highlight an approach that encompasses the entire process from epitope identification to vaccine production using a single technique, without requiring additional manipulation. Unlike conventional methods, phage display demonstrates exceptional efficiency and speed, which could provide significant advantages in critical scenarios such as pandemics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco Palma
- Institute for Globally Distributed Open Research and Education (IGDORE), 03181 Torrevieja, Spain
- Protheragen Inc., Ronkonkoma, NY 11779, USA
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Kim M, Savsani K, Dakshanamurthy S. A Peptide Vaccine Design Targeting KIT Mutations in Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Pharmaceuticals (Basel) 2023; 16:932. [PMID: 37513844 PMCID: PMC10383192 DOI: 10.3390/ph16070932] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2023] [Revised: 06/06/2023] [Accepted: 06/21/2023] [Indexed: 07/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a leading blood cancer subtype that can be caused by 27 gene mutations. Previous studies have explored potential vaccine and drug treatments against AML, but many were proven immunologically insignificant. Here, we targeted this issue and applied various clinical filters to improve immune response. KIT is an oncogenic gene that can cause AML when mutated and is predicted to be a promising vaccine target because of its immunogenic responses when activated. We designed a multi-epitope vaccine targeting mutations in the KIT oncogene using CD8+ and CD4+ epitopes. We selected the most viable vaccine epitopes based on thresholds for percentile rank, immunogenicity, antigenicity, half-life, toxicity, IFNγ release, allergenicity, and stability. The efficacy of data was observed through world and regional population coverage of our vaccine design. Then, we obtained epitopes for optimized population coverage from PCOptim-CD, a modified version of our original Java-based program code PCOptim. Using 24 mutations on the KIT gene, 12 CD8+ epitopes and 21 CD4+ epitopes were obtained. The CD8+ dataset had a 98.55% world population coverage, while the CD4+ dataset had a 65.14% world population coverage. There were five CD4+ epitopes that overlapped with the top CD8+ epitopes. Strong binding to murine MHC molecules was found in four CD8+ and six CD4+ epitopes, demonstrating the feasibility of our results in preclinical murine vaccine trials. We then created three-dimensional (3D) models to visualize epitope-MHC complexes and TCR interactions. The final candidate is a non-toxic and non-allergenic multi-epitope vaccine against KIT mutations that cause AML. Further research would involve murine trials of the vaccine candidates on tumor cells causing AML.
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Affiliation(s)
- Minji Kim
- College of Human Ecology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA
| | - Kush Savsani
- College of Humanities and Sciences, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, USA
| | - Sivanesan Dakshanamurthy
- Department of Oncology, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC 20057, USA
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Seok JM, Jeon MY, Chung YH, Ju H, Lee HL, Kwon S, Min JH, Kang ES, Kim BJ. Clinical characteristics of myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease according to their epitopes. Front Neurol 2023; 14:1200961. [PMID: 37435160 PMCID: PMC10331291 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2023.1200961] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2023] [Accepted: 06/12/2023] [Indexed: 07/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Background The detection of myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein autoantibodies (MOG-Ab) is essential for the diagnosis of MOG-Ab-associated disease (MOGAD). The clinical implications of different epitopes recognized by MOG-Ab are largely unknown. In this study, we established an in-house cell-based immunoassay for detecting MOG-Ab epitopes and examined the clinical characteristics of patients with MOG-Ab according to their epitopes. Methods We conducted a retrospective review of patients with MOG-Ab-associated disease (MOGAD) in our single center registry, and collected serum samples from enrolled patients. Human MOG variants were generated to detect epitopes recognized by MOG-Ab. The differences in clinical characteristics according to the presence of reactivity to MOG Proline42 (P42) were evaluated. Results Fifty five patients with MOGAD were enrolled. Optic neuritis was the most common presenting syndrome. The P42 position of MOG was a major epitope of MOG-Ab. The patients with a monophasic clinical course and childhood-onset patients were only observed in the group that showed reactivity to the P42 epitope. Conclusion We developed an in-house cell-based immunoassay to analyze the epitopes of MOG-Ab. The P42 position of MOG is the primary target of MOG-Ab in Korean patients with MOGAD. Further studies are needed to determine the predictive value of MOG-Ab and its epitopes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jin Myoung Seok
- Department of Neurology, Soonchunhyang University Hospital Cheonan, Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine, Cheonan, Republic of Korea
| | - Mi Young Jeon
- Department of Neurology, Neuroscience Center, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Yeon Hak Chung
- Department of Neurology, Neuroscience Center, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- Department of Neurology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Hyunjin Ju
- Department of Neurology, Neuroscience Center, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- Department of Neurology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Hye Lim Lee
- Department of Neurology, Korea University Guro Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Soonwook Kwon
- Department of Neurology, Inha University Hospital, Incheon, Republic of Korea
| | - Ju-Hong Min
- Department of Neurology, Neuroscience Center, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- Department of Neurology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Samsung Advanced Institute for Health Sciences & Technology (SAIHST), Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Eun-Suk Kang
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Genetics, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Byoung Joon Kim
- Department of Neurology, Neuroscience Center, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- Department of Neurology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
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Tîrziu A, Avram S, Madă L, Crișan-Vida M, Popovici C, Popovici D, Faur C, Duda-Seiman C, Păunescu V, Vernic C. Design of a Synthetic Long Peptide Vaccine Targeting HPV-16 and -18 Using Immunoinformatic Methods. Pharmaceutics 2023; 15:1798. [PMID: 37513985 PMCID: PMC10384861 DOI: 10.3390/pharmaceutics15071798] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2023] [Revised: 06/19/2023] [Accepted: 06/21/2023] [Indexed: 07/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Human papillomavirus types 16 and 18 cause the majority of cervical cancers worldwide. Despite the availability of three prophylactic vaccines based on virus-like particles (VLP) of the major capsid protein (L1), these vaccines are unable to clear an existing infection. Such infected persons experience an increased risk of neoplastic transformation. To overcome this problem, this study proposes an alternative synthetic long peptide (SLP)-based vaccine for persons already infected, including those with precancerous lesions. This new vaccine was designed to stimulate both CD8+ and CD4+ T cells, providing a robust and long-lasting immune response. The SLP construct includes both HLA class I- and class II-restricted epitopes, identified from IEDB or predicted using NetMHCPan and NetMHCIIPan. None of the SLPs were allergenic nor toxic, based on in silico studies. Population coverage studies provided 98.18% coverage for class I epitopes and 99.81% coverage for class II peptides in the IEDB world population's allele set. Three-dimensional structure ab initio prediction using Rosetta provided good quality models, which were assessed using PROCHECK and QMEAN4. Molecular docking with toll-like receptor 2 identified potential intrinsic TLR2 agonist activity, while molecular dynamics studies of SLPs in water suggested good stability, with favorable thermodynamic properties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandru Tîrziu
- Department of Functional Sciences, "Victor Babes" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Eftimie Murgu Square, No. 2, 300041 Timisoara, Romania
| | - Speranța Avram
- Department of Anatomy, Animal Physiology and Biophysics, Faculty of Biology, University of Bucharest, 91-95 Splaiul Independentei, 050095 Bucharest, Romania
| | - Leonard Madă
- Syonic SRL, Grigore T Popa Street, No. 81, 300254 Timisoara, Romania
| | - Mihaela Crișan-Vida
- Department of Automation and Computers, Politehnica University of Timisoara, 300006 Timisoara, Romania
| | - Casiana Popovici
- Section of Bioinformatics, Division of Systems Medicine, Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, UK
| | - Dan Popovici
- Department of Mathematics, University of the West Timişoara, Bd. Vasile Pârvan No. 4, 300223 Timişoara, Romania
| | - Cosmin Faur
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Medicine and Pharmacy "Victor Babes", Dropiei Street, No. 7, sc B, ap 8, 300661 Timisoara, Romania
| | - Corina Duda-Seiman
- Department of Chemistry and Biology, Faculty of Chemistry, Biology, Geography, West University of Timisoara, 16 Pestalozzi, 300115 Timisoara, Romania
| | - Virgil Păunescu
- Department of Functional Sciences, "Victor Babes" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Eftimie Murgu Square, No. 2, 300041 Timisoara, Romania
- Center for Gene and Cellular Therapies in the Treatment of Cancer Timisoara-OncoGen, Clinical Emergency County Hospital "Pius Brinzeu" Timisoara, No. 156 Liviu Rebreanu, 300723 Timisoara, Romania
- Immuno-Physiology and Biotechnologies Center, Department of Functional Sciences, "Victor Babes" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, No. 2 Eftimie Murgu Square, 300041 Timisoara, Romania
| | - Corina Vernic
- Department of Functional Sciences, "Victor Babes" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Eftimie Murgu Square, No. 2, 300041 Timisoara, Romania
- Discipline of Medical Informatics and Biostatistics, "Victor Babes" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 300041 Timisoara, Romania
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Tarke A, Zhang Y, Methot N, Narowski TM, Phillips E, Mallal S, Frazier A, Filaci G, Weiskopf D, Dan JM, Premkumar L, Scheuermann RH, Sette A, Grifoni A. Targets and cross-reactivity of human T cell recognition of common cold coronaviruses. Cell Rep Med 2023; 4:101088. [PMID: 37295422 PMCID: PMC10242702 DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2023.101088] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2022] [Revised: 03/17/2023] [Accepted: 05/24/2023] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
The coronavirus (CoV) family includes several viruses infecting humans, highlighting the importance of exploring pan-CoV vaccine strategies to provide broad adaptive immune protection. We analyze T cell reactivity against representative Alpha (NL63) and Beta (OC43) common cold CoVs (CCCs) in pre-pandemic samples. S, N, M, and nsp3 antigens are immunodominant, as shown for severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 (SARS2), while nsp2 and nsp12 are Alpha or Beta specific. We further identify 78 OC43- and 87 NL63-specific epitopes, and, for a subset of those, we assess the T cell capability to cross-recognize sequences from representative viruses belonging to AlphaCoV, sarbecoCoV, and Beta-non-sarbecoCoV groups. We find T cell cross-reactivity within the Alpha and Beta groups, in 89% of the instances associated with sequence conservation >67%. However, despite conservation, limited cross-reactivity is observed for sarbecoCoV, indicating that previous CoV exposure is a contributing factor in determining cross-reactivity. Overall, these results provide critical insights in developing future pan-CoV vaccines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alison Tarke
- Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI), La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Department of Experimental Medicine and Center of Excellence for Biomedical Research (CEBR), University of Genoa, 16132 Genoa, Italy
| | - Yun Zhang
- J. Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Nils Methot
- Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI), La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Tara M Narowski
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7290, USA
| | - Elizabeth Phillips
- Institute for Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Murdoch University, Perth, WA 6150, Australia
| | - Simon Mallal
- Institute for Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Murdoch University, Perth, WA 6150, Australia
| | - April Frazier
- Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI), La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Gilberto Filaci
- Center of Excellence for Biomedical Research, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Genoa, 16132 Genoa, Italy; Biotherapy Unit, IRCCS Ospedale Policlinico San Martino, 16132 Genoa, Italy
| | - Daniela Weiskopf
- Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI), La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Jennifer M Dan
- Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI), La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health, University of California, San Diego (UCSD), La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Lakshmanane Premkumar
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7290, USA
| | - Richard H Scheuermann
- J. Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Department of Pathology, University of California, San Diego (UCSD), La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
| | - Alessandro Sette
- Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI), La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health, University of California, San Diego (UCSD), La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
| | - Alba Grifoni
- Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI), La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
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Wangsanut T, Amsri A, Pongpom M. Antibody screening reveals antigenic proteins involved in Talaromyces marneffei and human interaction. Front Cell Infect Microbiol 2023; 13:1118979. [PMID: 37404721 PMCID: PMC10315666 DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2023.1118979] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2022] [Accepted: 05/30/2023] [Indexed: 07/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Talaromycosis is a fungal infection that generally affects immunocompromised hosts and is one of the most frequent systemic mycoses in HIV patients, especially in endemic areas such as Southeast Asia. Talaromyces marneffei, the causative agent of talaromycosis, grows as a mold in the environment but adapts to the human body and host niches by transitioning from conidia to yeast-like cells. Knowledge of the human host and T. marneffei interaction has a direct impact on the diagnosis, yet studies are still lacking. The morbidity and mortality rates are high in taloromycosis patients if the diagnosis and treatments are delayed. Immunogenic proteins are excellent candidates for developing detection tools. Previously, we identified antigenic proteins that were recognized by antibodies from talaromycosis sera. Three of these identified proteins have been previously characterized in detail, while the others have not been explored. To expedite the progress of antigen discovery, the complete list of antigenic proteins and their features was fully reported in this study. Functional annotation and Gene Ontology examination revealed that these proteins showed a high association with membrane trafficking. Further bioinformatics analyses were performed to search for antigenic protein characteristics, including functional domains, critical residues, subcellular localization, secretory signals, and epitope peptide sequences. Expression profiling of these antigenic encoding genes was investigated using quantitative real-time PCR. The results demonstrated that most genes were expressed at low levels in the mold form, but were highly upregulated in the pathogenic yeast phase, consistent with the antigenic role of these genes during the human-host interaction. Most transcripts accumulated in the conidia, suggesting a role during phase transition. The collection of all antigen-encoding DNA sequences described here is freely accessible at GenBank, which could be useful for the research community to develop into biomarkers, diagnostic tests, research detection tools, and even vaccines.
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Bourgonje AR, Andreu-Sánchez S, Vogl T, Hu S, Vich Vila A, Gacesa R, Leviatan S, Kurilshikov A, Klompus S, Kalka IN, van Dullemen HM, Weinberger A, Visschedijk MC, Festen EAM, Faber KN, Wijmenga C, Dijkstra G, Segal E, Fu J, Zhernakova A, Weersma RK. Phage-display immunoprecipitation sequencing of the antibody epitope repertoire in inflammatory bowel disease reveals distinct antibody signatures. Immunity 2023; 56:1393-1409.e6. [PMID: 37164015 DOI: 10.1016/j.immuni.2023.04.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2021] [Revised: 12/13/2022] [Accepted: 04/14/2023] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs), e.g., Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), are chronic immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. A comprehensive overview of an IBD-specific antibody epitope repertoire is, however, lacking. Using high-throughput phage-display immunoprecipitation sequencing (PhIP-Seq), we identified antibodies against 344,000 antimicrobial, immune, and food antigens in 497 individuals with IBD compared with 1,326 controls. IBD was characterized by 373 differentially abundant antibody responses (202 overrepresented and 171 underrepresented), with 17% shared by both IBDs, 55% unique to CD, and 28% unique to UC. Antibody reactivities against bacterial flagellins dominated in CD and were associated with ileal involvement, fibrostenotic disease, and anti-Saccharomyces cerevisiae antibody positivity, but not with fecal microbiome composition. Antibody epitope repertoires accurately discriminated CD from controls (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.89), and similar discrimination was achieved when using only ten antibodies (AUC = 0.87). Individuals with IBD thus show a distinct antibody repertoire against selected peptides, allowing clinical stratification and discovery of immunological targets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arno R Bourgonje
- Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Sergio Andreu-Sánchez
- Department of Genetics, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands; Department of Pediatrics, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Thomas Vogl
- Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel; Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel; Diagnostic and Research Institute of Hygiene, Microbiology and Environmental Medicine, Medical University Graz, Graz, Austria; Center for Cancer Research, Medical University of Vienna, Wien, Austria
| | - Shixian Hu
- Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands; Department of Genetics, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Arnau Vich Vila
- Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands; Department of Genetics, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Ranko Gacesa
- Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands; Department of Genetics, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Sigal Leviatan
- Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel; Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Alexander Kurilshikov
- Department of Genetics, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Shelley Klompus
- Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel; Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Iris N Kalka
- Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel; Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Hendrik M van Dullemen
- Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Adina Weinberger
- Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel; Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Marijn C Visschedijk
- Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Eleonora A M Festen
- Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Klaas Nico Faber
- Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Cisca Wijmenga
- Department of Genetics, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Gerard Dijkstra
- Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Eran Segal
- Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel; Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Jingyuan Fu
- Department of Genetics, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands; Department of Pediatrics, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Alexandra Zhernakova
- Department of Genetics, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Rinse K Weersma
- Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.
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Zhang Y, Che H, Li C, Jin T. Food Allergens of Plant Origin. Foods 2023; 12:foods12112232. [PMID: 37297475 DOI: 10.3390/foods12112232] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2023] [Revised: 05/24/2023] [Accepted: 05/26/2023] [Indexed: 06/12/2023] Open
Abstract
This review presents an update on the physical, chemical, and biological properties of food allergens in plant sources, focusing on the few protein families that contribute to multiple food allergens from different species and protein families recently found to contain food allergens. The structures and structural components of the food allergens in the allergen families may provide further directions for discovering new food allergens. Answers as to what makes some food proteins allergens are still elusive. Factors to be considered in mitigating food allergens include the abundance of the protein in a food, the property of short stretches of the sequence of the protein that may constitute linear IgE binding epitopes, the structural properties of the protein, its stability to heat and digestion, the food matrix the protein is in, and the antimicrobial activity to the microbial flora of the human gastrointestinal tract. Additionally, recent data suggest that widely used techniques for mapping linear IgE binding epitopes need to be improved by incorporating positive controls, and methodologies for mapping conformational IgE binding epitopes need to be developed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuzhu Zhang
- US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Pacific West Area, Western Regional Research Center, 800 Buchanan Street, Albany, CA 94710, USA
| | - Huilian Che
- Key Laboratory of Precision Nutrition and Food Quality, Key Laboratory of Functional Dairy, Ministry of Education, College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
| | - Caiming Li
- US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Pacific West Area, Western Regional Research Center, 800 Buchanan Street, Albany, CA 94710, USA
- School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Food Safety and Quality Control, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China
| | - Tengchuan Jin
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230001, China
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Korošec P, Koren A, Debeljak J, Zahirović A, Skerbinjek-Kavalar M, Berce V, Dejanović L, Luzar J, Štrukelj B, Lunder M. Ara h 2-specific IgE epitope-like peptides inhibit the binding of IgE to Ara h 2 and suppress lgE-dependent effector cell activation. Clin Exp Allergy 2023. [PMID: 37038893 DOI: 10.1111/cea.14314] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2022] [Revised: 02/28/2023] [Accepted: 03/16/2023] [Indexed: 04/12/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Clinical and experimental analyses indicate a pathognomonic role for allergen IgE crosslinking through epitope-paratope interactions as a major initial step in the cascade leading to effector cell activation and clinical manifestations of lgE-mediated food allergies. We aimed to undertake the initial development and assessment of Ara h 2-specific IgE epitope-like peptides that can bind to allergen-specific IgE paratopes and suppress effector cell activation. METHODS We performed biopanning, screening, IgE binding, selection and mapping of peptides. We generated synthetic peptides for use in all functional experiments. ImmunoCAP inhibition, basophil and mast cell activation tests, with LAD2 cells, a human mast cell line were performed. Twenty-six children or young adults who had peanut allergy were studied. RESULTS We identified and selected three linear peptides (DHPRFNRDNDVA, DHPRYGP and DHPRFST), and immunoblot analyses revealed binding to lgE from peanut-allergic individuals. The peptide sequences were aligned to the disordered region corresponding to the loop between helices 2 and 3 of Ara h 2, and conformational mapping showed that the peptides match the surface of Ara h 2 and h 6 but not other peanut allergens. In ImmunoCAP inhibition experiments, the peptides significantly inhibit the binding of IgE to Ara h 2 (p < .001). In basophil and mast cell activation tests, the peptides significantly suppressed Ara h 2-induced effector cell activation (p < .05) and increased the half-maximal Ara h 2 effective concentration (p < .05). Binding of the peptides to specific IgEs did not induce activation of basophils or mast cells. CONCLUSIONS These studies show that the indicated peptides reduce the allergenic activity of Ara h 2 and suppress lgE-dependent basophil and mast cell activation. These observations may suggest a novel therapeutic strategy for food allergy based on epitope-paratop blocking.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter Korošec
- University Clinic of Respiratory and Allergic Diseases, Golnik, Slovenia
- Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
- Peptide Allergy Therapeutics, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Ana Koren
- University Clinic of Respiratory and Allergic Diseases, Golnik, Slovenia
| | - Jerneja Debeljak
- University Clinic of Respiratory and Allergic Diseases, Golnik, Slovenia
| | - Abida Zahirović
- Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | | | - Vojko Berce
- Department of Pediatrics, University Medical Center, Maribor, Slovenia
| | - Luka Dejanović
- University Clinic of Respiratory and Allergic Diseases, Golnik, Slovenia
| | - Jernej Luzar
- Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Borut Štrukelj
- Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Mojca Lunder
- Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
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Li Q, Wubshet AK, Wang Y, Heath L, Zhang J. B and T Cell Epitopes of the Incursionary Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Serotype SAT2 for Vaccine Development. Viruses 2023; 15:v15030797. [PMID: 36992505 PMCID: PMC10059872 DOI: 10.3390/v15030797] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2022] [Revised: 02/26/2023] [Accepted: 03/03/2023] [Indexed: 03/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Failure of cross-protection among interserotypes and intratypes of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) is a big threat to endemic countries and their prevention and control strategies. However, insights into practices relating to the development of a multi-epitope vaccine appear as a best alternative approach to alleviate the cross-protection-associated problems. In order to facilitate the development of such a vaccine design approach, identification and prediction of the antigenic B and T cell epitopes along with determining the level of immunogenicity are essential bioinformatics steps. These steps are well applied in Eurasian serotypes, but very rare in South African Territories (SAT) Types, particularly in serotype SAT2. For this reason, the available scattered immunogenic information on SAT2 epitopes needs to be organized and clearly understood. Therefore, in this review, we compiled relevant bioinformatic reports about B and T cell epitopes of the incursionary SAT2 FMDV and the promising experimental demonstrations of such designed and developed vaccines against this serotype.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qian Li
- Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, National/WOAH Foot and Mouth Disease Reference Laboratory, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou 730046, China
| | - Ashenafi Kiros Wubshet
- Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, National/WOAH Foot and Mouth Disease Reference Laboratory, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou 730046, China
- Department of Veterinary Basics and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Veterinary Science, Mekelle University, Mekelle 2084, Tigray, Ethiopia
| | - Yang Wang
- Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, National/WOAH Foot and Mouth Disease Reference Laboratory, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou 730046, China
| | - Livio Heath
- Transboundary Animal Diseases: Vaccine Production Programme, Onderstepoort Veterinary Research Institute, Agricultural Research Council, Pretoria 0110, South Africa
| | - Jie Zhang
- Hebei Key Laboratory of Preventive Veterinary Medicine, College of Animal Science and Technology, Hebei Normal University of Science and Technology, Qinhuangdao 066004, China
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Joseph J, Darpe S, Kulkarni G, Raj VS. SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody epitopes are overlapping and highly mutated which raises the chances of escape variants and requires development of broadly reactive vaccines. Proteins 2023. [PMID: 36912191 DOI: 10.1002/prot.26488] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2022] [Revised: 02/07/2023] [Accepted: 02/28/2023] [Indexed: 03/14/2023]
Abstract
The rapid adaptation of SARS-CoV-2 within the host species and the increased viral transmission triggered the evolution of different SARS-CoV-2 variants. Though numerous monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have been identified as prophylactic therapy for SARS-CoV-2, the ongoing surge in the number of SARS-CoV-2 infections shows the importance of understanding the mutations in the spike and developing novel vaccine strategies to target all variants. Here, we report the map of experimentally validated 74 SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing mAb binding epitopes of all variants. The majority (87.84%) of the potent neutralizing epitopes are localized to the receptor-binding domain (RBD) and overlap with each other, whereas limited (12.16%) epitopes are found in the N-terminal domain (NTD). Notably, 69 out of 74 mAb targets have at least one mutation at the epitope sites. The potent epitopes found in the RBD show higher mutations (4-10aa) compared to lower or modest neutralizing antibodies, suggesting that these epitopes might co-evolve with the immune pressure. The current study shows the importance of determining the critical mutations at the antibody recognition epitopes, leading to the development of broadly reactive immunogens targeting multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants. Further, vaccines inducing both humoral and cell-mediated immune responses might prevent the escape of SARS-CoV-2 variants from neutralizing antibodies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeswin Joseph
- Virology Scientific Research (VSR) Laboratory, School of Biology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram, India
| | - Sukhada Darpe
- Virology Scientific Research (VSR) Laboratory, School of Biology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram, India
| | - Grishma Kulkarni
- Virology Scientific Research (VSR) Laboratory, School of Biology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram, India
| | - V Stalin Raj
- Virology Scientific Research (VSR) Laboratory, School of Biology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram, India
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50
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Jores RD, Baldera D, Schirru E, Muntoni S, Rossino R, Manchinu MF, Marongiu MF, Caria CA, Ripoli C, Ricciardi MR, Cucca F, Congia M. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells reactivity in recent-onset type I diabetes patients is directed against the leader peptide of preproinsulin, GAD65 271-285 and GAD65 431-450. Front Immunol 2023; 14:1130019. [PMID: 36969220 PMCID: PMC10034372 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1130019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2022] [Accepted: 02/27/2023] [Indexed: 03/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction T cell reactivity against pancreatic autoantigens is considered one of the main contributors to the destruction of insulin-producing cells in type 1 diabetes (T1D). Over the years, peptide epitopes derived from these autoantigens have been described in NOD mice and in both HLA class II transgenic mice and humans. However, which ones are involved in the early onset or in the progressive phases of the disease is still unclear. Methods In this work we have investigated, in early-onset T1D pediatric patients and HLA-matched controls from Sardinia, the potential of preproinsulin (PPI) and glutamate decarboxylase 65 (GAD65)-derived peptides to induce spontaneous T cell proliferation responses of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Results Significant T cell responses against PPI1-18, PPI7-19 and PPI31-49, the first two belonging to the leader sequence of PPI, and GAD65271-285 and GAD65431-450, were found in HLA-DR4, -DQ8 and -DR3, -DQ2 T1D children. Conclusions These data show that cryptic epitopes from the leader sequence of the PPI and GAD65271-285 and GAD65431-450 peptides might be among the critical antigenic epitopes eliciting the primary autoreactive responses in the early phases of the disease. These results may have implications in the design of immunogenic PPI and GAD65 peptides for peptide-based immunotherapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rita D. Jores
- Department Outpatient Clinic, ASL8 Outpatient Clinic Quartu Sant’Elena, Cagliari, Italy
| | - Davide Baldera
- Centro Servizi di Ateneo per gli Stabulari (CeSaSt), University of Cagliari, Monserrato, Italy
| | - Enrico Schirru
- Centro Servizi di Ateneo per gli Stabulari (CeSaSt), University of Cagliari, Monserrato, Italy
| | - Sandro Muntoni
- Department of Biomedical Science, University of Cagliari, Monserrato, Italy
| | - Rossano Rossino
- Department of Pediatrics, Clinic of Pediatric and Rare Diseases, Microcitemico Pediatric Hospital, A.Cao, ASL8, Cagliari, Italy
- Department of Medical Science and Public Health, University of Cagliari, Monserrato, Italy
| | - Maria F. Manchinu
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Institute for Genetic and Biomedical Research, Monserrato, Italy
| | - Maria F. Marongiu
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Institute for Genetic and Biomedical Research, Monserrato, Italy
| | - Cristian A. Caria
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Institute for Genetic and Biomedical Research, Monserrato, Italy
| | - Carlo Ripoli
- Department of Pediatric, Diabetologic Unit, Microcitemico Pediatric Hospital, A.Cao, ASL8, Cagliari, Italy
| | - Maria R. Ricciardi
- Department of Pediatric, Diabetologic Unit, Microcitemico Pediatric Hospital, A.Cao, ASL8, Cagliari, Italy
| | - Francesco Cucca
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Institute for Genetic and Biomedical Research, Monserrato, Italy
- Department of Biomedical Science, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy
| | - Mauro Congia
- Department of Pediatrics, Clinic of Pediatric and Rare Diseases, Microcitemico Pediatric Hospital, A.Cao, ASL8, Cagliari, Italy
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Institute for Genetic and Biomedical Research, Monserrato, Italy
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