Title
Novel multi-epitope protein containing conserved epitopes from different Leishmania species as potential vaccine candidate: Integrated immunoinformatics and molecular dynamics approach
Date Issued
01 December 2019
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Publisher(s)
Elsevier Ltd
Abstract
Leishmaniosis, caused by intracellular parasites of the genus Leishmania, has become a serious public health problem around the world, and for which there are currently extensive limitations. In this work, a theoretical model was proposed for the development of a multi-epitope vaccine. The protein GP63 of the parasite was selected for epitopes prediction, due to its important biological role for the infection process and abundance. IEDB tools were used to determine epitopes B and T in Leishmania braziliensis; besides, other conserved epitopes in three species were selected. To improve immunogenicity, 50S ribosomal protein L7 / L12 (ID: P9WHE3) was used as a domain of adjuvant in the assembly process. The folding arrangement of the vaccine was obtained through homologous modeling multi-template with MODELLER v9.21, and a Ramachandran plot analysis was done. Furthermore, physicochemical properties were described with the ProtParam tool and secondary structure prediction combining GOR-IV and SOPMA tools. Finally, a molecular dynamics simulation (50 ns) was performed to establish flexibility and conformational changes. The analysis of the results indicates high conservancy in the epitopes predicted among the four species. Moreover, Ramachandran plot, physicochemical parameters, and secondary structure prediction suggest a stable conformation of the vaccine, after a minimum conformational change that was evaluated with the free energy landscape. The conformational change does not drive any substantial change for epitope exposition on the surface. The vaccine proposed could be tested experimentally to guide new approaches in the development of pan-vaccines; vaccines with regions conserved in multiple species.
Volume
83
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Biología celular, Microbiología
Inmunología
Biotecnología relacionada con la salud
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85074973540
PubMed ID
Source
Computational Biology and Chemistry
ISSN of the container
14769271
Sponsor(s)
Part of the results presented here were developed with the help of CENAPAD-SP (Centro Nacional de Processamento de Alto Desempenho em São Paulo) grant UNICAMP/FINEP-MCT and CENAPAD-UFC (Centro Nacional de Processamento de Alto Desempenho, instalado na Universidade Federal do Ceará).
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus