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Köseoğlu AE, Özgül F, Işıksal EN, Şeflekçi Y, Tülümen D, Özgültekin B, Deniz Köseoğlu G, Özyiğit S, Ihlamur M, Ekenoğlu Merdan Y. In silico discovery of diagnostic/vaccine candidate antigenic epitopes and a multi-epitope peptide vaccine (NaeVac) design for the brain-eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri causing human meningitis. Gene 2024; 902:148192. [PMID: 38253295 DOI: 10.1016/j.gene.2024.148192] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2023] [Revised: 12/14/2023] [Accepted: 01/18/2024] [Indexed: 01/24/2024]
Abstract
Naegleria fowleri, the brain-eating amoeba, is a free-living amoeboflagellate with three different life cycles (trophozoite, flagellated, and cyst) that lives in a variety of habitats around the world including warm freshwater and soil. It causes a disease called naegleriasis leading meningitis and primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) in humans. N. fowleri is transmitted through contaminated water sources such as insufficiently chlorinated swimming pool water or contaminated tap water, and swimmers are at risk. N. fowleri is found all over the world, and most infections were reported in both developed and developing countries with high mortality rates and serious clinical findings. Until now, there is no FDA approved vaccine and early diagnosis is urgent against this pathogen. In this study, by analyzing the N. fowleri vaccine candidate proteins (Mp2CL5, Nfa1, Nf314, proNP-A and proNP-B), it was aimed to discover diagnostic/vaccine candidate epitopes and to design a multi-epitope peptide vaccine against this pathogen. After the in silico evaluation, three prominent diagnostic/vaccine candidate epitopes (EAKDSK, LLPHIRILVY, and FYAKLLPHIRILVYS) with the highest antigenicities were discovered and a potentially highly immunogenic/antigenic multi-epitope peptide vaccine (NaeVac) was designed against the brain-eating amoeba N. fowleri causing human meningitis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ahmet Efe Köseoğlu
- Duisburg-Essen University, Faculty of Chemistry, Department of Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology, Essen, Germany.
| | - Filiz Özgül
- Biruni University, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Elif Naz Işıksal
- Biruni University, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Istanbul, Turkey; Biruni University, Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacy, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Yusuf Şeflekçi
- Biruni University, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Deniz Tülümen
- Biruni University, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Buminhan Özgültekin
- Bogaziçi University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Istanbul, Turkey
| | | | - Sena Özyiğit
- Biruni University, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Murat Ihlamur
- Biruni University, Vocational School, Department of Electronics and Automation, Istanbul, Turkey; Yıldız Technical University, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Department of Bioengineering, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Yağmur Ekenoğlu Merdan
- Biruni University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medical Microbiology, Istanbul, Turkey
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Hajissa K, Zakaria R, Suppian R, Mohamed Z. Epitope-based vaccine as a universal vaccination strategy against Toxoplasma gondii infection: A mini-review. J Adv Vet Anim Res 2019; 6:174-182. [PMID: 31453188 PMCID: PMC6702889 DOI: 10.5455/javar.2019.f329] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2018] [Revised: 02/10/2019] [Accepted: 02/16/2019] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Despite the significant progress in the recent efforts toward developing an effective vaccine against toxoplasmosis, the search for new protective vaccination strategy still remains a challenge and elusive goal because it becomes the appropriate way to prevent the disease. Various experimental approaches in the past few years showed that developing a potential vaccine against the disease can be achievable. The combination of multi-epitopes expressing different stages of the parasite life cycle has become an optimal strategy for acquiring a potent, safe, and effective vaccine. Epitope-based vaccines have gained attention as alternative vaccine candidates due to their ability of inducing protective immune responses. This mini-review highlights the current status and the prospects of Toxoplasma gondii vaccine development along with the application of epitope-based vaccine in the future parasite immunization as a novel under development and evaluation strategy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Khalid Hajissa
- Department of Medical Microbiology & Parasitology, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 16150 Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia
| | - Robaiza Zakaria
- Department of Medical Microbiology & Parasitology, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 16150 Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia
| | - Rapeah Suppian
- Biomedicine Program, School of Health Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia 16150 Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia
| | - Zeehaida Mohamed
- Department of Medical Microbiology & Parasitology, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 16150 Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia
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Siddiqui R, Ali IKM, Cope JR, Khan NA. Biology and pathogenesis of Naegleria fowleri. Acta Trop 2016; 164:375-394. [PMID: 27616699 DOI: 10.1016/j.actatropica.2016.09.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 109] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2016] [Revised: 09/06/2016] [Accepted: 09/06/2016] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Naegleria fowleri is a protist pathogen that can cause lethal brain infection. Despite decades of research, the mortality rate related with primary amoebic meningoencephalitis owing to N. fowleri remains more than 90%. The amoebae pass through the nose to enter the central nervous system killing the host within days, making it one of the deadliest opportunistic parasites. Accordingly, we present an up to date review of the biology and pathogenesis of N. fowleri and discuss needs for future research against this fatal infection.
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Delivery of HIV-1 Nef Protein in Mammalian Cells Using Cell Penetrating Peptides as a Candidate Therapeutic Vaccine. Int J Pept Res Ther 2016. [DOI: 10.1007/s10989-016-9547-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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Zhao S, Yin J, Zhou L, Yan F, He Q, Huang L, Peng S, Jia J, Cheng J, Chen H, Tao W, Ji X, Xu Y, Yuan Z. Hippo/MST1 signaling mediates microglial activation following acute cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury. Brain Behav Immun 2016; 55:236-248. [PMID: 26721416 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbi.2015.12.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 60] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2015] [Revised: 12/18/2015] [Accepted: 12/21/2015] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury is a major public health concern that causes high rates of disability and mortality in adults. Microglial activation plays a crucial role in ischemic stroke-induced alteration of the immune microenvironment. However, the mechanism underlying the triggering of microglial activation by ischemic stroke remains to be elucidated. Previously, we demonstrated that the protein kinase Hippo/MST1 plays an important role in oxidative stress-induced cell death in mammalian primary neurons and that the protein kinase c-Abl phosphorylates MST1 at Y433, which increases MST1 kinase activity. Microglial activation has been implicated as a secondary detrimental cellular response that contributes to neuronal cell death in ischemic stroke. Here, we are the first, to our knowledge, to demonstrate that MST1 mediates stroke-induced microglial activation by directly phosphorylating IκBα at residues S32 and S36. We further demonstrate that Src kinase functions upstream of MST1-IκB signaling during microglial activation. Specific deletion of MST1 in microglia mitigates stroke-induced brain injury. Therefore, we propose that Src-MST1-IκB signaling plays a critical role in stroke-induced microglial activation. Together with our previous work demonstrating that MST1 is important for oxidative stress-induced neuronal cell death, our results indicate that MST1 could represent a potent therapeutic target for ischemic stroke.
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Affiliation(s)
- Siqi Zhao
- Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Jie Yin
- Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; College of Life Sciences, Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Lujun Zhou
- Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; College of Life Sciences, Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Feng Yan
- The Cerebrovascular Diseases Research Institute, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing 100053, China
| | - Qing He
- Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; College of Life Sciences, Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Li Huang
- Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Shengyi Peng
- Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Junying Jia
- Core Facility Center, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Jinbo Cheng
- Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Hong Chen
- Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Wufan Tao
- School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
| | - Xunming Ji
- The Cerebrovascular Diseases Research Institute, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing 100053, China
| | - Yun Xu
- Department of Neurology and Radiology, Affiliated Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing University Medical School, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210008, China
| | - Zengqiang Yuan
- Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
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Zysset-Burri DC, Müller N, Beuret C, Heller M, Schürch N, Gottstein B, Wittwer M. Genome-wide identification of pathogenicity factors of the free-living amoeba Naegleria fowleri. BMC Genomics 2014; 15:496. [PMID: 24950717 PMCID: PMC4082629 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2164-15-496] [Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2013] [Accepted: 06/11/2014] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The free-living amoeba Naegleria fowleri is the causative agent of the rapidly progressing and typically fatal primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) in humans. Despite the devastating nature of this disease, which results in > 97% mortality, knowledge of the pathogenic mechanisms of the amoeba is incomplete. This work presents a comparative proteomic approach based on an experimental model in which the pathogenic potential of N. fowleri trophozoites is influenced by the compositions of different media. RESULTS As a scaffold for proteomic analysis, we sequenced the genome and transcriptome of N. fowleri. Since the sequence similarity of the recently published genome of Naegleria gruberi was far lower than the close taxonomic relationship of these species would suggest, a de novo sequencing approach was chosen. After excluding cell regulatory mechanisms originating from different media compositions, we identified 22 proteins with a potential role in the pathogenesis of PAM. Functional annotation of these proteins revealed, that the membrane is the major location where the amoeba exerts its pathogenic potential, possibly involving actin-dependent processes such as intracellular trafficking via vesicles. CONCLUSION This study describes for the first time the 30 Mb-genome and the transcriptome sequence of N. fowleri and provides the basis for the further definition of effective intervention strategies against the rare but highly fatal form of amoebic meningoencephalitis.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | | | - Matthias Wittwer
- Biology Division, Spiez Laboratory, Federal Office for Civil Protection, Austrasse, CH-3700 Spiez, Switzerland.
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Abstract
Our interaction with the environment and each other is inherently time-varying in nature. It is thus not surprising that the nervous systems of animals have evolved sophisticated mechanisms to not only tell time, but to learn to discriminate and produce temporal patterns. Indeed some of the most sophisticated human behaviors, such as speech and music, would not exist if the human brain was unable to learn to discriminate and produce temporal patterns. Compared to the study of other forms of learning, such as visual perceptual learning, the study of the learning of interval and temporal pattern discrimination in the subsecond range is relatively recent. A growing number of studies over the past 15 years, however, have established that perceptual and motor timing undergo robust learning. One of the principles to have emerged from these studies is that temporal learning is generally specific to the trained interval, an observation that has important implications to the neural mechanisms underlying our ability to tell time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Domenica Bueti
- Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University Hospital of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Dean V. Buonomano
- Departments of Neurobiology and Psychology, Brain Research Institute, and Integrative Center for Learning and Memory, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
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Vaccination with lentiviral vector expressing the nfa1 gene confers a protective immune response to mice infected with Naegleria fowleri. CLINICAL AND VACCINE IMMUNOLOGY : CVI 2013; 20:1055-60. [PMID: 23677321 DOI: 10.1128/cvi.00210-13] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Naegleria fowleri, a pathogenic free-living amoeba, causes fatal primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) in humans and animals. The nfa1 gene (360 bp), cloned from a cDNA library of N. fowleri, produces a 13.1-kDa recombinant protein which is located on pseudopodia, particularly the food cup structure. The nfa1 gene plays an important role in the pathogenesis of N. fowleri infection. To examine the effect of nfa1 DNA vaccination against N. fowleri infection, we constructed a lentiviral vector (pCDH) expressing the nfa1 gene. For the in vivo mouse study, BALB/c mice were intranasally vaccinated with viral particles of a viral vector expressing the nfa1 gene. To evaluate the effect of vaccination and immune responses of mice, we analyzed the IgG levels (IgG, IgG1, and IgG2a), cytokine induction (interleukin-4 [IL-4] and gamma interferon [IFN-γ]), and survival rates of mice that developed PAM. The levels of both IgG and IgG subclasses (IgG1 and IgG2a) in vaccinated mice were significantly increased. The cytokine analysis showed that vaccinated mice exhibited greater IL-4 and IFN-γ production than the other control groups, suggesting a Th1/Th2 mixed-type immune response. In vaccinated mice, high levels of Nfa1-specific IgG antibodies continued until 12 weeks postvaccination. The mice vaccinated with viral vector expressing the nfa1 gene also exhibited significantly higher survival rates (90%) after challenge with N. fowleri trophozoites. Finally, the nfa1 vaccination effectively induced protective immunity by humoral and cellular immune responses in N. fowleri-infected mice. These results suggest that DNA vaccination using a viral vector may be a potential tool against N. fowleri infection.
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