Asadi Masoumeh, Ghaffari Ali Dalir, Mohammadhasani Fatemeh
Student Research Committee, Faculty of Medicine, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran.
Department of Parasitology and Mycology, Faculty of Medicine, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran.
Curr Res Transl Med. 2025 Jan-Mar;73(1):103475. doi: 10.1016/j.retram.2024.103475. Epub 2024 Oct 16.
Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) infects all warm-blooded animals, including humans. Currently, no effective treatments exist to prevent the generation of chronic tissue cysts in infected hosts. Therefore, developing a vaccine to protect to deal with toxoplasmosis is a promising strategy, as a single immunization could provide lifelong protective immunity. Rhoptry proteins (ROPs) play a vital role for the parasite's survival within host cells and perform critical functions during different phases of parasite invasion. Little is known about ROP41 gene. Nevertheless, Understanding the characteristics of ROP41 will enhance diagnostic and vaccine research.
The current article provides a comprehensive analysis of the essential components of the ROP41 protein, including its transmembrane domain, physico-chemical properties, subcellular location, tertiary and secondary structures, and potential T- and B-cell epitopes. These features were determined by many bioinformatics approaches to identify possible epitopes for developing a highly effective vaccine.
ROP41 protein showed 36 possible post-translational modification regions. The ROP41 protein secondary structure contains 17.35 % extended strand, 33.47 % alpha-helix, and 49.18 % random coil. Also, ROP41 showed many possible B- and T-cell epitopes. According to the Ramachandran plot, 90.78 % of amino acid residues had been placed in favored, 3.28 % in outlier, and 5.94 % in allowed areas. Also, the allergenicity and antigenicity evaluation indicated that ROP41 is non-allergenic and immunogenic.
The current study offered critical basic and conceptual information on ROP41 to increase a successful vaccine in opposition to continual and acute toxoplasmosis for in addition in vivo assessments. Further research is necessary for the development of vaccines utilizing ROP41 alone or combined with various antigens.
刚地弓形虫可感染包括人类在内的所有温血动物。目前，尚无有效的治疗方法来预防受感染宿主中慢性组织囊肿的产生。因此，开发一种疫苗来应对弓形虫病是一种很有前景的策略，因为单次免疫就能提供终身保护性免疫。棒状体蛋白（ROPs）对寄生虫在宿主细胞内的存活起着至关重要的作用，并在寄生虫入侵的不同阶段发挥关键功能。关于ROP41基因知之甚少。然而，了解ROP41的特性将有助于诊断和疫苗研究。
本文对ROP41蛋白的基本组成部分进行了全面分析，包括其跨膜结构域、理化性质、亚细胞定位、三级和二级结构以及潜在的T细胞和B细胞表位。通过多种生物信息学方法确定了这些特征，以识别开发高效疫苗的可能表位。
ROP41蛋白显示出36个可能的翻译后修饰区域。ROP41蛋白的二级结构包含17.35%的延伸链、33.47%的α螺旋和49.18%的无规卷曲。此外，ROP41显示出许多可能的B细胞和T细胞表位。根据拉氏图，90.78%的氨基酸残基位于有利区域，3.28%位于异常值区域，5.94%位于允许区域。此外，致敏性和抗原性评估表明ROP41无致敏性且具有免疫原性。
本研究提供了关于ROP41的关键基础和概念信息，以增加针对持续性和急性弓形虫病的成功疫苗，此外还可用于体内评估。利用ROP41单独或与各种抗原联合开发疫苗还需要进一步研究。
