Abstract
Diarrhoeal diseases due to Shigellosis account for deaths of ~1.5 million children every year in developing countries. Outer membrane proteins (OMPs) of Gram negative bacteria have been shown to be excellent subunit vaccine candidates against various pathogens. However, effective immune response can be generated using specific immunogenic determinants or peptides instead of whole protein or pathogen. In the present study, we chose six OMPs of Shigella flexneri 2a to predict peptides with good antigenic potential. Various tools were used in a systematic flow to predict B- and T-cell epitopes. Stringent selection criteria were used for epitope screening to ensure generation of both arms of immunity. These epitopes are predicted to be effective against a significantly large population of the diarrhoea afflicted countries in Southeast Asia. Most of the predicted epitopes are located towards the outer exposed region of proteins. The epitopes were docked with respective MHC Class I and II molecules to study peptide–MHC interactions. In conclusion, we have predicted an epitope ensemble against Shigellosis which can be experimentally validated for its immunogenic efficacy. We also propose a systematic workflow for immune-optimization to design effective peptide vaccines.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 481-495 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | International Journal of Peptide Research and Therapeutics |
Volume | 22 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 1 2016 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Diarrhoea
- Epitope
- Immunoinformatics
- Outer membrane proteins
- Population coverage
- Shigella
- Vaccine
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Analytical Chemistry
- Bioengineering
- Biochemistry
- Molecular Medicine
- Drug Discovery