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Izadi M, Mirzaei F, Bagherzadeh MA, Ghiabi S, Khalifeh A. Discovering conserved epitopes of Monkeypox: Novel immunoinformatic and machine learning approaches. Heliyon 2024; 10:e24972. [PMID: 38318007 PMCID: PMC10839993 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e24972] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2022] [Revised: 12/12/2023] [Accepted: 01/17/2024] [Indexed: 02/07/2024] Open
Abstract
The Monkeypox virus, an Orthopoxvirus with zoonotic origins, has been responsible for a growing number of human infections reminiscent of smallpox since May 2022, as reported by the World Health Organization. As of now, there are no established medical treatments for managing Monkeypox infections. In this study, we used machine learning to select conserved epitopes. Proteins were determined using Reverse Vaccinology and Gene Ontology subcellular localization, and their epitopes were predicted. NextClade was used to calculate the number of mutations in each amino acid position using 2433 Monkeypox sequences. The Unsupervised Nearest Neighbor machine learning algorithm and ideal matrix [0 0] were used to calculate the conservancy score of epitopes. Six proteins were determined for epitope prediction. Finally, 47 MHC-I epitopes, 5 MHC-II epitopes, and 10 Linear B cell epitopes were discovered. Our method can select epitopes for vaccine design to prevent viruses with accelerated evolution and high mutation rate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohammad Izadi
- Student Research Committee, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
| | - Fatemeh Mirzaei
- Student Research Committee, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
| | | | - Shamim Ghiabi
- Department of Medical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Alireza Khalifeh
- Department of Pathology, Faculty of Dentistry, Shiraz Branch, Islamic Azad of University, Shiraz, Iran
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Cioffi VB, de Castro-Amarante MF, Lulla A, Andreata-Santos R, Cruz MC, Moreno ACR, de Oliveira Silva M, de Miranda Peres B, de Freitas Junior LHG, Moraes CB, Durigon EL, Gordon NC, Hyvönen M, de Souza Ferreira LC, Balan A. SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein peptides displayed in the Pyrococcus furiosus RAD system preserve epitopes antigenicity, immunogenicity, and virus-neutralizing activity of antibodies. Sci Rep 2023; 13:16821. [PMID: 37798298 PMCID: PMC10556064 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-43720-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2023] [Accepted: 09/27/2023] [Indexed: 10/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Amongst the potential contribution of protein or peptide-display systems to study epitopes with relevant immunological features, the RAD display system stands out as a highly stable scaffold protein that allows the presentation of constrained target peptides. Here, we employed the RAD display system to present peptides derived from the SARS-CoV-2 Spike (S) protein as a tool to detect specific serum antibodies and to generate polyclonal antibodies capable of inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 infectivity in vitro. 44 linear S-derived peptides were genetically fused with the RAD scaffold (RAD-SCoV-epitopes) and screened for antigenicity with sera collected from COVID-19-infected patients. In a second step, selected RAD-SCoV-epitopes were used to immunize mice and generate antibodies. Phenotypic screening showed that some of these antibodies were able to recognize replicating viral particles in VERO CCL-81 and most notably seven of the RAD-SCoV-epitopes were able to induce antibodies that inhibited viral infection. Our findings highlight the RAD display system as an useful platform for the immunological characterization of peptides and a potentially valuable strategy for the design of antigens for peptide-based vaccines, for epitope-specific antibody mapping, and for the development of antibodies for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Victor Bolsanelli Cioffi
- Laboratory of Applied Structural Biology, Department of Microbiology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes, 1374, São Paulo, 05508-000, Brazil
| | - Maria Fernanda de Castro-Amarante
- Laboratory of Vaccine Development, Department of Microbiology, University of São Paulo, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes, 1374, São Paulo, 05508-000, Brazil
| | - Aleksei Lulla
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, 80 Tennis Court Road, Cambridge, CB2 1GA, UK
| | - Robert Andreata-Santos
- Laboratory of Vaccine Development, Department of Microbiology, University of São Paulo, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes, 1374, São Paulo, 05508-000, Brazil
| | - Mario Costa Cruz
- Core Facilities to Support Research (CEFAP), Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes, São Paulo, 173005508-000, Brazil
| | - Ana Carolina Ramos Moreno
- Laboratory of Vaccine Development, Department of Microbiology, University of São Paulo, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes, 1374, São Paulo, 05508-000, Brazil
- Vaccine Development Laboratory, Butantan Institute, Av. Vital Brasil, 1500, São Paulo, SP, 05503-900, Brazil
| | - Mariângela de Oliveira Silva
- Phenotypic Screening Platform, Department of Microbiology, University of São Paulo, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes, 1374, São Paulo, 05508-000, Brazil
| | - Bianca de Miranda Peres
- Phenotypic Screening Platform, Department of Microbiology, University of São Paulo, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes, 1374, São Paulo, 05508-000, Brazil
| | - Lucio Holanda Gondim de Freitas Junior
- Phenotypic Screening Platform, Department of Microbiology, University of São Paulo, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes, 1374, São Paulo, 05508-000, Brazil
| | - Carolina Borsoi Moraes
- Phenotypic Screening Platform, Department of Microbiology, University of São Paulo, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes, 1374, São Paulo, 05508-000, Brazil
| | - Edison Luiz Durigon
- Laboratory of Clinical and Molecular Virology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes, 1374, São Paulo, 05508-000, Brazil
- Institut Pasteur de São Paulo, Av. Prof. Lucio Martins Rodrigues, 370, São Paulo, 05508-020, Brazil
| | - Nicola Coker Gordon
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, 80 Tennis Court Road, Cambridge, CB2 1GA, UK
| | - Marko Hyvönen
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, 80 Tennis Court Road, Cambridge, CB2 1GA, UK
| | - Luís Carlos de Souza Ferreira
- Laboratory of Vaccine Development, Department of Microbiology, University of São Paulo, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes, 1374, São Paulo, 05508-000, Brazil
- Institut Pasteur de São Paulo, Av. Prof. Lucio Martins Rodrigues, 370, São Paulo, 05508-020, Brazil
| | - Andrea Balan
- Laboratory of Applied Structural Biology, Department of Microbiology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes, 1374, São Paulo, 05508-000, Brazil.
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Zaib S, Akram F, Liaqat ST, Altaf MZ, Khan I, Dera AA, Uddin J, Khan A, Al-Harrasi A. Bioinformatics approach for the construction of multiple epitope vaccine against omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. Sci Rep 2022; 12:19087. [PMID: 36352060 PMCID: PMC9645332 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-23550-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2022] [Accepted: 11/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
Abstract
The World Health Organization categorized SARS-CoV-2 as a variant of concern, having numerous mutations in spike protein, which have been found to evade the effect of antibodies stimulated by the COVID-19 vaccine. The susceptibility to omicron variant by immunization-induced antibodies are direly required for risk evaluation. To avoid the risk of arising viral illness, the construction of a specific vaccine that triggers the production of targeted antibodies to combat infection remains highly imperative. The aim of the present study is to develop a particular vaccine exploiting bioinformatics approaches which can target B- and T-cells epitopes. Through this approach, novel epitopes of the S protein-SARS-CoV-2 were predicted for the development of a multiple epitope vaccine. Multiple epitopes were selected on the basis of toxicity, immunogenicity and antigenicity, and vaccine subunit was constructed having potential immunogenic properties. The epitopes were linked with 3 types of linker EAAAK, AAY and GPGPG for vaccine construction. Subsequently, vaccine structure was docked with the receptor and cloned in a pET-28a (+) vector. The constructed vaccine was ligated in pET-28a (+) vector in E. coli using the SnapGene tool for the expression study and a good immune response was observed. Several computational tools were used to predict and analyze the vaccine constructed by using spike protein sequence of omicrons. The current study identified a Multi-Epitope Vaccine (MEV) as a significant vaccine candidate that could potentially help the global world to combat SARS-CoV-2 infections.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sumera Zaib
- grid.444936.80000 0004 0608 9608Department of Basic and Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Central Punjab, Lahore, 54590 Pakistan
| | - Fatima Akram
- grid.444936.80000 0004 0608 9608Department of Basic and Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Central Punjab, Lahore, 54590 Pakistan
| | - Syed Talha Liaqat
- grid.444936.80000 0004 0608 9608Department of Basic and Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Central Punjab, Lahore, 54590 Pakistan
| | - Muhammad Zain Altaf
- grid.444936.80000 0004 0608 9608Department of Basic and Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Central Punjab, Lahore, 54590 Pakistan
| | - Imtiaz Khan
- grid.5379.80000000121662407Department of Chemistry and Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, The University of Manchester, 131 Princess Street, Manchester, M1 7DN UK
| | - Ayed A. Dera
- grid.412144.60000 0004 1790 7100Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia
| | - Jalal Uddin
- grid.412144.60000 0004 1790 7100Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, King Khalid University, Abha, 62529 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
| | - Ajmal Khan
- grid.444752.40000 0004 0377 8002Natural and Medical Sciences Research Center, University of Nizwa, 616 Nizwa, Oman
| | - Ahmed Al-Harrasi
- grid.444752.40000 0004 0377 8002Natural and Medical Sciences Research Center, University of Nizwa, 616 Nizwa, Oman
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