Onile Olugbenga S, Ojo Glory J, Oyeyemi Bolaji Fatai, Agbowuro Gbenga O, Fadahunsi Adeyinka I
Biotechnology Programme, Department of Biological Sciences, Elizade University, 340211, Ilara-Mokin, Nigeria.
Molecular Biology Group, Department of Science Technology, The Federal Polytechnic, 360231, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria.
NAR Genom Bioinform. 2020 Jul 1;2(3):lqaa048. doi: 10.1093/nargab/lqaa048. eCollection 2020 Sep.
Approximately one-third of the world's human population is estimated to have been exposed to the parasite . Its prevalence is reportedly high in Ethiopia (74.80%) and Zimbabwe (68.58%), and is 40.40% in Nigeria. The adverse effect of this parasite includes a serious congenital disease in the developing fetus of pregnant women. After several efforts to eliminate the disease, only one licensed vaccine 'Toxovax' has been used to avoid congenital infections in sheep. The vaccine has been adjudged expensive coupled with adverse effects and short shelf life. The potential of vaccine to likely revert to virulent strain is a major reason why it has not been found suitable for human use, hence the need for a vaccine that will induce T and B memory cells capable of eliciting longtime immunity against the infection. This study presents immunoinformatics approaches to design a -oriented multiepitope subunit vaccine with focus on micronemal proteins for the vaccine construct. The designed vaccine was subjected to antigenicity, immunogenicity, allergenicity and physicochemical parameter analyses. A 657-amino acid multiepitope vaccine was designed with the antigenicity probability of 0.803. The vaccine construct was classified as stable, non-allergenic, and highly immunogenic, thereby indicating the safety of the vaccine construct for human use.
据估计，世界上约三分之一的人口曾接触过这种寄生虫。据报道，其在埃塞俄比亚的流行率很高（74.80%），在津巴布韦为（68.58%），在尼日利亚为40.40%。这种寄生虫的不良影响包括孕妇发育中的胎儿会患上严重的先天性疾病。在多次努力消除这种疾病后，只有一种获批的疫苗“Toxovax”被用于预防绵羊的先天性感染。该疫苗被认为价格昂贵，且伴有不良反应和保质期短的问题。疫苗可能恢复为毒性菌株的可能性是其未被认为适合人类使用的主要原因，因此需要一种能够诱导T和B记忆细胞、产生针对该感染的长期免疫力的疫苗。本研究提出了免疫信息学方法，以设计一种针对[具体寄生虫名称未给出]的多表位亚单位疫苗，重点是用于疫苗构建的微线体蛋白。对设计的疫苗进行了抗原性、免疫原性、致敏性和理化参数分析。设计了一种657个氨基酸的多表位疫苗，其抗原性概率为0.803。该疫苗构建体被归类为稳定、无致敏性且具有高度免疫原性，从而表明该疫苗构建体对人类使用是安全的。
