A comprehensive in silico analysis of putative outer membrane and secretory hydrolases from the pathogenic Leptospira: Possible implications in pathogenesis

Outer surface/membrane and virulent secretory proteins are primarily crucial for pathogenesis. Secreted and outer membrane hydrolases of many pathogens play an important role in attenuating the host immune system. Leptospira expresses many such proteins, and few have been characterized to display various roles, including host immune evasion. However, identification, classification, characterization, and elucidation of the possible role of Leptospira's outer membrane and secretory hydrolases have yet to be explored. In the present study, we used bioinformatics tools to predict exported proteins from the pathogenic Leptospira proteome. Moreover, we focused on secretory and outer membrane putative hydrolases from the exported proteins to generate a deeper understanding. Our analysis yielded four putative outer/secretory hydrolases, LIC_10995, LIC_11183, LIC_11463, and LIC_12988, containing α/β hydrolase fold and displayed similarity with lipase motif. Moreover, their conservation analysis of the predicted hydrolases across the spectrum of different Leptospira species showed high clustering with the pathogenic species. Outer membrane and secretory proteins with lipolytic activity may have a role in pathogenesis. This is the first bioinformatics analysis of secretory and outer membrane α/β hydrolases from leptospiral species. However, experimental studies are indeed required to unravel this possibility.

Strongyloides stercoralis proteome: A reverse approach to the identification of potential immunogenic candidates

Strongyloides stercoralis is a parasite widely distributed in the tropical and subtropical areas in the world. Its treatment and diagnosis have a limitation as many other parasitic diseases. Nowadays, there is a great interest in designing an efficient epitope for vaccines or diagnostic. In this study, a bioinformatics-based screening approach has been incorporated in order to explore potential immunogens in the S. stercoralis proteome. Bioinformatic tools were used to predict diagnostic and vaccinology approaches. 12.851 cell immunology proteins from Uniprot were analyzed. Thirty-four immunogenic candidates were identified, they had higher antigenic activity, less than 2 α-helices, non-allergen activity and they do not have homology with host proteins, all of them have ortholog protein with Strongyloides ratti. Some of them presented a good binding with immunological cell (T and B cell). These proteins could be a good alternative as a candidate for the design of the novel vaccines or diagnostic tests of strongyloides stercoralis.

A Systematic Review on Popularity, Application and Characteristics of Protein Secondary Structure Prediction Tools

BACKGROUND

Prediction of proteins' secondary structure is one of the major steps in the generation of homology models. These models provide structural information which is used to design suitable ligands for potential medicinal targets. However, selecting a proper tool between multiple Secondary Structure Prediction (SSP) options is challenging. The current study is an insight into currently favored methods and tools, within various contexts.

OBJECTIVE

A systematic review was performed for a comprehensive access to recent (2013-2016) studies which used or recommended protein SSP tools.

METHODS

Three databases, Web of Science, PubMed and Scopus were systematically searched and 99 out of the 209 studies were finally found eligible to extract data.

RESULTS

Four categories of applications for 59 retrieved SSP tools were: (I) prediction of structural features of a given sequence, (II) evaluation of a method, (III) providing input for a new SSP method and (IV) integrating an SSP tool as a component for a program. PSIPRED was found to be the most popular tool in all four categories. JPred and tools utilizing PHD (Profile network from HeiDelberg) method occupied second and third places of popularity in categories I and II. JPred was only found in the two first categories, while PHD was present in three fields.

CONCLUSION

This study provides a comprehensive insight into the recent usage of SSP tools which could be helpful for selecting a proper tool.

Application of built-in adjuvants for epitope-based vaccines

Several studies have shown that epitope vaccines exhibit substantial advantages over conventional vaccines. However, epitope vaccines are associated with limited immunity, which can be overcome by conjugating antigenic epitopes with built-in adjuvants (e.g., some carrier proteins or new biomaterials) with special properties, including immunologic specificity, good biosecurity and biocompatibility, and the ability to vastly improve the immune response of epitope vaccines. When designing epitope vaccines, the following types of built-in adjuvants are typically considered: (1) pattern recognition receptor ligands (i.e., toll-like receptors); (2) virus-like particle carrier platforms; (3) bacterial toxin proteins; and (4) novel potential delivery systems (e.g., self-assembled peptide nanoparticles, lipid core peptides, and polymeric or inorganic nanoparticles). This review primarily discusses the current and prospective applications of these built-in adjuvants (i.e., biological carriers) to provide some references for the future design of epitope-based vaccines.

Recent Trends in System-Scale Integrative Approaches for Discovering Protective Antigens Against Mycobacterial Pathogens

Mycobacterial infections are one of the deadliest infectious diseases still posing a major health burden worldwide. The battle against these pathogens needs to focus on novel approaches and key interventions. In recent times, availability of genome scale data has revolutionized the fields of computational biology and immunoproteomics. Here, we summarize the cutting-edge ‘omics’ technologies and innovative system scale strategies exploited to mine the available data. These may be targeted using high-throughput technologies to expedite the identification of novel antigenic candidates for the rational next generation vaccines and serodiagnostic development against mycobacterial pathogens for which traditional methods have been failing.

Comparative proteome analysis reveals pathogen specific outer membrane proteins of Leptospira

Proteomes of pathogenic Leptospira interrogans and L. borgpetersenii and the saprophytic L. biflexa were filtered through computational tools to identify Outer Membrane Proteins (OMPs) that satisfy the required biophysical parameters for their presence on the outer membrane. A total of 133, 130, and 144 OMPs were identified in L. interrogans, L. borgpetersenii, and L. biflexa, respectively, which forms approximately 4% of proteomes. A holistic analysis of transporting and pathogenic characteristics of OMPs together with Clusters of Orthologous Groups (COGs) among the OMPs and their distribution across 3 species was made and put forward a set of 21 candidate OMPs specific to pathogenic leptospires. It is also found that proteins homologous to the candidate OMPs were also present in other pathogenic species of leptospires. Six OMPs from L. interrogans and 2 from L. borgpetersenii observed to have similar COGs while those were not found in any intermediate or saprophytic forms. These OMPs appears to have role in infection and pathogenesis and useful for anti-leptospiral strategies.

Proteome-scale identification of Leishmania infantum for novel vaccine candidates: A hierarchical subtractive approach

Vaccines are one of the most significant achievements in medical science. However, vaccine design is still challenging at all stages. The selection of antigenic peptides as vaccine candidates is the first and most important step for vaccine design. Experimental selection of antigenic peptides for the design of vaccines is a time-consuming, labor-intensive and expensive procedure. More recently, in the light of computer-aided biotechnology and reverse vaccinology, the precise selection of antigenic peptides and rational vaccine design against many pathogens have developed. In this study, the whole proteome of Leishmania infantum was analyzed using a pipeline of algorithms. From the set of 8045 proteins of L. infantum, sixteen novel antigenic proteins were derived using a hierarchical proteome subtractive analysis. These novel vaccine targets can be utilized as top candidates for designing the new prophylactic or therapeutic vaccines against visceral leishmaniasis. Significantly, all the sixteen novel vaccine candidates are non-allergen antigenic proteins that have not been used for the design of vaccines against visceral leishmaniasis until now.

Excavating the surface-associated and secretory proteome of Mycobacterium leprae for identifying vaccines and diagnostic markers relevant immunodominant epitopes

For centuries, Mycobacterium leprae, etiological agent of leprosy, has been afflicting mankind regardless of extensive use of live-attenuated vaccines and antibiotics. Surface-associated and secretory proteins (SASPs) are attractive targets against bacteria. We have integrated biological knowledge with computational approaches and present a proteome-wide identification of SASPs. We also performed computational assignment of immunodominant epitopes as coordinates of prospective antigenic candidates in most important class of SASPs, the outer membrane proteins (OMPs). Exploiting the known protein sequence and structural characteristics shared by the SASPs from bacteria, 17 lipoproteins, 11 secretory and 19 novel OMPs (including 4 essential proteins) were identified in M. leprae As OMPs represent the most exposed antigens on the cell surface, their immunoinformatics analysis showed that the identified 19 OMPs harbor T-cell MHC class I epitopes and class II epitopes against HLA-DR alleles (54), while 15 OMPs present potential T-cell class II epitopes against HLA-DQ alleles (6) and 7 OMPs possess T-cell class II epitopes against HLA-DP alleles (5) of humans. Additionally, 11 M. leprae OMPs were found to have B-cell epitopes and these may be considered as prime candidates for the development of new immunotherapeutics against M. leprae.

Proteome scale census of major facilitator superfamily transporters in Trichoderma reesei using protein sequence and structure based classification enhanced ranking

Trichoderma spp. have been acknowledged as potent bio-control agents against microbial pathogens and also as plant growth promoters. Various secondary metabolites are attributed for these beneficial activities. Major facilitator superfamily (MFS) includes the large proportion of efflux-pumps which are linked with membrane transport of these secondary metabolites. We have carried out a proteome-wide identification of MFS transporters using protein sequence and structure based hierarchical method in Trichoderma reesei. 448 proteins out of 9115 were detected to carry transmembrane helices. MFS specific intragenic gene duplication and its context with transport function have been presented. Finally, using homology based techniques, domains and motifs of MFS families have been identified and utilized to classify them. From query dataset of 448 transmembrane proteins, 148 proteins are identified as potential MFS transporters. Sugar porter, drug: H(+) antiporter-1, monocarboxylate porter and anion: cation symporter emerged as major MFS families with 51, 35, 17 and 11 members respectively. Representative protein tertiary structures of these families are homology modeled for structure-function analysis. This study may help to understand the molecular basis of secretion and transport of agriculturally valuable secondary metabolites produced by these bio-control fungal agents which may be exploited in future for enhancing its biotechnological applications in eco-friendly sustainable development.

A multi-subunit based, thermodynamically stable model vaccine using combined immunoinformatics and protein structure based approach

Immunizations with the conventional vaccines have failed to effectively inhibit the incidences and further dissemination of the infections. To address it, we have implemented protein structure based strategies to design an efficient multi-epitope subunit vaccine against Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP). Previously reported immunodominant peptide epitope sequences from MAP1611 protein were conjugated together with a stretch of conserved amino acid residues of heparin-binding hemagglutinin, reported as a TLR4 agonist and was employed as an adjuvant to polarize the cellular responses toward host protective Th1 responses. These three types of component peptides were combined with the help of relevant linkers for efficient separation to improve and intensify the antigen processing and presentation. The primary structures of these multi peptides were 3-dimensional homology modeled to yield the final chimeric vaccine. Further, its conformational correctness and stability enhancement was assessed using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Finally, disulfide engineering in the most flexible regions of the molecule yielded three potential mutants, Y593C-E610C, Q631C-A634C and a double mutant Q631C-A634C/Y593C-E610C. The double mutant represents thermodynamically most stable version among them. It is potentially highly antigenic, soluble and non-allergen molecule interacting with the TLR receptor expressed on the immune cells. This vaccine contains both T-cell and several B-cell epitopes and an adjuvant which potentially possess protective cellular and humoral immune responses triggering properties. The presented vaccine strategy will be proven a promising pathogen specific candidate with wide therapeutic application against MAP which may be extended to other prevalent infections in future.

A tug-of-war between the host and the pathogen generates strategic hotspots for the development of novel therapeutic interventions against infectious diseases

Microbial pathogens are known to express an array of specific signaling molecules referred as Pathogen Associated Molecular Patterns (PAMPs), which are recognized by Pattern Recognition Receptors (PRRs), present on the surface of the host cells. Interactions between PAMPs and PRRs on the surface of the host cells lead to signaling events which could culminate into either successful infection or clearance of the pathogens. Here, we summarize how these events may generate novel host based as well as pathogen based molecular targets for designing effective therapeutic strategies against infections.

Proteome-scale identification and characterization of mitochondria targeting proteins of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis: Potential virulence factors modulating host mitochondrial function

Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis is the etiological agent of Johne's Disease among ruminants. During the course of infection, it expresses a number of proteins for its successful persistence inside the host that cause variety of physiological abnormalities in the host. Mitochondrion is one of the attractive targets for pathogenic bacteria. Employing a proteome-wide sequence and structural signature based approach we have identified 46 M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis proteins as potential targets for the host mitochondrial targeting. These may act as virulence factors modulating mitochondrial physiology for bacterial survival and immune evasion inside the host cells.

The internal gene duplication and interrupted coding sequences in the MmpL genes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Towards understanding the multidrug transport in an evolutionary perspective

The multidrug resistance has emerged as a major problem in the treatment of many of the infectious diseases. Tuberculosis (TB) is one of such disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. There is short term chemotherapy to treat the infection, but the main hurdle is the development of the resistance to antibiotics. This resistance is primarily due to the impermeable mycolic acid rich cell wall of the bacteria and other factors such as efflux of antibiotics from the bacterial cell. The MmpL (Mycobacterial Membrane Protein Large) proteins of mycobacteria are involved in the lipid transport and antibiotic efflux as indicated by the preliminary reports. We present here, comprehensive comparative sequence and structural analysis, which revealed topological signatures shared by the MmpL proteins and RND (Resistance Nodulation Division) multidrug efflux transporters. This provides evidence in support of the notion that they belong to the extended RND permeases superfamily. In silico modelled tertiary structures are in homology with an integral membrane component present in all of the RND efflux pumps. We document internal gene duplication and gene splitting events happened in the MmpL genes, which further elucidate the molecular functions of these putative transporters in an evolutionary perspective.

Proteome-wide B and T cell epitope repertoires in outer membrane proteins of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis have vaccine and diagnostic relevance: a holistic approach

Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) is an etiological agent of chronic inflammation of the intestine among ruminants and humans. Currently, there are no effective vaccines and sensitive diagnostic tests available for its control and detection. For this, it is of paramount importance to identify the MAP antigens, which may be immunologically recognized by the host immune system. To address this challenge, we performed identification of the immunogenic epitopes in the MAP outer membrane proteins (OMPs). We have previously identified 57 MAP proteins as OMPs [Rana A, Rub A, Akhter Y. 2014. Molecular BioSystems, 10:2329-2337] and have evaluated them for the epitope selection and analysis employing a computational approach. Thirty-five MAP OMPs are reported with nine-mer peptides showing high binding affinity to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules and 28 MAP OMPs with 15-mer peptides of high binding affinity for MHC class II molecules. The presence of MHC binding epitopes indicates the potential cell-mediated immune response inducing capacity of these MAP OMPs in infected host. To further investigate the humoral response inducing properties of OMPs of MAP, we report potential B cell epitopes based on the sequences of peptide antigens and their molecular structures. We also report 10 proteins having epitopes for both B and T cells representing potential candidates which may invoke both humoral and cellular immune responses in the host. These findings will greatly accelerate and expedite the formulation of effective and cost-efficient vaccines and diagnostic tests against MAP infection.