Fontes Sílvia da Silva, Maia Fernanda de Moraes, Ataides Laura Santa'Anna, Conte Fernando Paiva, Lima-Junior Josué da Costa, Rozental Tatiana, da Silva Assis Matheus Ribeiro, Júnior Adonai Alvino Pessoa, Fernandes Jorlan, de Lemos Elba Regina Sampaio, Rodrigues-da-Silva Rodrigo Nunes
Laboratory of Monoclonal Antibodies Technology, Immunobiological Technology Institute, FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro 21040-900, Brazil.
Pilot Plant Implantation Project, Immunobiological Technology Institute, FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro 21040-900, Brazil.
Pathogens. 2021 Sep 28;10(10):1250. doi: 10.3390/pathogens10101250.
is a global, highly infectious intracellular bacterium, able to infect a wide range of hosts and to persist for months in the environment. It is the etiological agent of Q fever-a zoonosis of global priority. Currently, there are no national surveillance data on 's seroprevalence for any South American country, reinforcing the necessity of developing novel and inexpensive serological tools to monitor the prevalence of infections among humans and animals-especially cattle, goats, and sheep. In this study, we used immunoinformatics and computational biology tools to predict specific linear B-cell epitopes in three outer membrane proteins: OMP-H (CBU_0612), Com-1 (CBU_1910), and OMP-P1 (CBU_0311). Furthermore, predicted epitopes were tested by ELISA, as synthetic peptides, against samples of patients reactive to in indirect immunofluorescence assay, in order to evaluate their natural immunogenicity. In this way, two linear B-cell epitopes were identified in each studied protein (OMP-H, OMP-H, Com-1, Com-1, OMP-P1, and OMP-P1); all of them were confirmed as naturally immunogenic by the presence of specific antibodies in 77% of studied patients against at least one of the identified epitopes. Remarkably, a higher frequency of endocarditis cases was observed among patients who presented an intense humoral response to OMP-H and Com-1 epitopes. These data confirm that immunoinformatics applied to the identification of specific B-cell epitopes can be an effective strategy to improve and accelerate the development of surveillance tools against neglected diseases.
是一种全球范围内具有高度传染性的细胞内细菌，能够感染多种宿主并在环境中持续存在数月。它是Q热的病原体——一种全球重点关注的人畜共患病。目前，没有任何南美国家关于其血清流行率的国家监测数据，这凸显了开发新型且廉价的血清学工具以监测人类和动物（尤其是牛、山羊和绵羊）感染流行率的必要性。在本研究中，我们使用免疫信息学和计算生物学工具来预测三种外膜蛋白中的特定线性B细胞表位：OMP-H（CBU_0612）、Com-1（CBU_1910）和OMP-P1（CBU_0311）。此外，作为合成肽，通过ELISA针对间接免疫荧光试验中对有反应的患者样本测试预测的表位，以评估它们的天然免疫原性。通过这种方式，在每个研究的蛋白（OMP-H、OMP-H、Com-1、Com-1、OMP-P1和OMP-P1）中鉴定出两个线性B细胞表位；在77%的研究患者中，针对至少一种鉴定出的表位存在特异性抗体，证实所有这些表位都具有天然免疫原性。值得注意的是，在对OMP-H和Com-1表位呈现强烈体液反应的患者中观察到更高频率的心内膜炎病例。这些数据证实，应用免疫信息学鉴定特定B细胞表位可以是一种有效的策略，以改进和加速针对被忽视疾病的监测工具的开发。
