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Kashif M, Waseem M, Subbarao N. In silico prediction of CD8 + and CD4 + T cell epitopes in Leishmania major proteome: Using immunoinformatics. J Mol Graph Model 2024; 129:108759. [PMID: 38492406 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmgm.2024.108759] [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: 10/05/2023] [Revised: 02/12/2024] [Accepted: 03/11/2024] [Indexed: 03/18/2024]
Abstract
The leishmaniases are NDTs (neglected tropical diseases) that affect people all over the world. They are brought on by protozoans from the genus Leishmania and disseminated by phlebotomine flies that are afflicted with the disease. The best option to manage and lower the incidence of these diseases has been thought by the creation of a safe and effective vaccination. This research used an in silico based mining approach to look for high potential epitopes that might bind to MHC Class I and MHC Class II molecules (mainly; HLA-A*02:01 & HLA-DRB1*03:01) from human population in order to promote vaccine development. Based on the presence of signal peptides, GPI anchors, antigenicity predictions, and a subtractive proteomic technique, we have screened 17 putative antigenic proteins from the 8083 total proteins of L. major. After that thorough immunogenic epitope prediction were done using IEDB-AR tools. We isolated five immunogenic epitopes (three 9-mer & two 15-mer) from five antigenic proteins through docking and MD simulation analysis. Finally, these five anticipated epitopes, viz., TLPEIPVNV, ELMAPVFGL, TLAAAVALL, NSINIRLDGVTSAGF and NVPLVVDASSLFRVA have considerably stronger binding potential with their respective alleles and may trigger immunological responses. The goal of this work was to identify MHC restricted epitopes for CD8+ and CD4+ T cells activation using immunoinformatics in order to identify potential vaccine candidates against L. major parasites.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohammad Kashif
- School of Computational and Integrative Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 110067, India.
| | - Mohd Waseem
- School of Computational and Integrative Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 110067, India
| | - Naidu Subbarao
- School of Computational and Integrative Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 110067, India
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2
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Heidarinia H, Tajbakhsh E, Rostamian M, Momtaz H. Epitope mapping of Acinetobacter baumannii outer membrane protein W (OmpW) and laboratory study of an OmpW-derivative peptide. Heliyon 2023; 9:e18614. [PMID: 37560650 PMCID: PMC10407128 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e18614] [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: 03/23/2023] [Revised: 07/12/2023] [Accepted: 07/24/2023] [Indexed: 08/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Outer membrane protein W (OmpW) is a less-known A. baumannii antigen with potential immunogenic properties. The epitopes of this protein are not well-identified yet. Therefore, in the present study, B- and T-cell epitopes of A. baumannii OmpW were found using comprehensive in silico and partially in vitro studies. The T-cell (both class-I and class-II) and B-cell (both linear and conformational) epitopes were predicted and screened through many bioinformatics approaches including the prediction of IFN-γ production, immunogenicity, toxicity, allergenicity, human similarity, and clustering. A single 15-mer epitopic peptide containing a linear B-cell and both classes of T-cell epitopes were found and used for further assays. For in vitro assays, patient- and healthy control-derived peripheral blood mononuclear cells were stimulated with the 15-mer peptide, Phytohemagglutinin, or medium alone, and cell proliferation and IFN-γ production assays were performed. The bioinformatics studies led to mapping OmpW epitopes and introducing a 15-mer peptide. In vitro assays to some extent showed its potency in cell proliferation but not in IFN-γ induction, although the responses were not very expressive and faced some questions/limitations. In general, in the current study, we mapped the most immunogenic epitopes of OmpW that may be used for future studies and also assayed one of these epitopes in vitro, which was shown to have an immunogenicity potential. However, the induced immune responses were not strong which suggests that the present peptide needs a series of biotechnological manipulations to be used as a potential vaccine candidate. More studies in this field are recommended.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hana Heidarinia
- Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Shahrekord Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahrekord, Iran
| | - Elahe Tajbakhsh
- Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Shahrekord Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahrekord, Iran
| | - Mosayeb Rostamian
- Infectious Diseases Research Center, Health Institute, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran
| | - Hassan Momtaz
- Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Shahrekord Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahrekord, Iran
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3
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Kashif M, Hira SK, Manna PP. Immunoinformatics based design and prediction of proteome-wide killer cell epitopes of Leishmania donovani: Potential application in vaccine development. J Biomol Struct Dyn 2022; 40:10578-10591. [PMID: 34219625 DOI: 10.1080/07391102.2021.1945495] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
Despite several extensive and exhaustive efforts, search for potential therapy against leishmaniasis has not made much progress. In the present work, we have employed mining strategy to screen Leishmania donovani proteome for identification of promising vaccine candidate. We have screened 21 potential antigenic proteins from 7960 total protein of L. donovani, based on the presence of signal peptide, GPI anchor, antigenicity prediction and substractive proteomic approach. Secondly, we have also performed comprehensive immunogenic epitope prediction from the screened 21 proteins, using IEDB-AR tools. Out of the 21 antigenic proteins, we obtained 11 immunogenic epitopes from 9 proteins. The final results revealed that four predicted epitopes namely; YPAFAALVF, VAVAATVAY, AAAPTEAAL and MYPLVAVVF, have significantly better binding potential with respective alleles and could elicits immune responses. Docking analysis using PATCHDOCK server and molecular dynamic simulation using GROMACS revealed the potential of the sequences as immunogenic epitopes. In silico studies also suggested that the epitopes occupied almost same binding cleft with the respective alleles, when compared with the reference peptides. It is also suggested from the molecular dynamic simulation data that the peptides were intact in the pocket for longer periods of time. Our study was designed to select MHC class I restricted epitopes for the activation of CD8 T cells using immunoinformatics for the prediction of probable vaccine candidate against L. donovani parasites. Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohammad Kashif
- Immunobiology Laboratory, Department of Zoology, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
| | - Sumit Kumar Hira
- Cellular Immunology Laboratory, Department of Zoology, The University of Burdwan, Purba Bardhhaman, India
| | - Partha Pratim Manna
- Immunobiology Laboratory, Department of Zoology, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
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4
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Ahmadpour NB, Dalimi A, Pirestani M, Sadraei J. A Novel Chimeric Antigen as a Vaccine Candidate against Leishmania major: In silico Analysis. IRANIAN JOURNAL OF PARASITOLOGY 2021; 16:186-198. [PMID: 34557233 PMCID: PMC8418661 DOI: 10.18502/ijpa.v16i2.6267] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2020] [Accepted: 09/25/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Background: Leishmania is a mandatory intracellular pathogen and causing neglected disease. Hence, protection against leishmaniasis by a development vaccine is an important subject. This study aimed to design a poly-epitope vaccine for cutaneous leishmaniasis. Methods: The present study was conducted in the Parasitology Department of Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran during 2017–2019. Several bioinformatics methods at online servers were used for prediction of different aspects of poly-epitope, including, physico-chemical attributes, allergenicity, antigenicity, secondary and tertiary structures, B-cell, T-cell and MHC (I, II) potential epitopes of LACK, LEIF, GP63 and SMT antigens of L. major. Results: After designing the construct (GLSL), the outputs of PTM sites demonstrated that the poly-epitope had 57 potential sites for phosphorylation. Furthermore, the secondary of GLSL structure includes 59.42%, 20.94% and 19.63% for random coil, extended strand and alpha-helix, respectively. The GLSL is an immunogenic protein with an acceptable antigenicity (0.8410) and non-allergen. Afterward, 20 potential epitopes of LACK, LEIF, GP63 and SMT antigens were linked by a flexible linker (SAPGTP), then was synthesized, and sub-cloned in pLEXY– neo2. The results were confirmed the expression of 38.7 kDa poly-epitope in secretory and cytosolic sites, separately. Conclusion: A good expression in the L. tarentulae and confirmation of the GLSL poly-epitope could be a basis for developing a vaccine candidate against leishmaniasis that should be confirmed via experimental tests in BALB/c mice.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Abdolhossein Dalimi
- Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Majid Pirestani
- Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Javid Sadraei
- Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
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5
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Hassanzadeh P. The significance of bioengineered nanoplatforms against SARS-CoV-2: From detection to genome editing. Life Sci 2021; 274:119289. [PMID: 33676931 PMCID: PMC7930743 DOI: 10.1016/j.lfs.2021.119289] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2020] [Revised: 02/12/2021] [Accepted: 02/20/2021] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
COVID-19 outbreak can impose serious negative impacts on the infrastructures of societies including the healthcare systems. Despite the increasing research efforts, false positive or negative results that may be associated with serologic or even RT-PCR tests, inappropriate or variable immune response, and high rates of mutations in coronavirus may negatively affect virus detection process and effectiveness of the vaccines or drugs in development. Nanotechnology-based research attempts via developing state-of-the-art techniques such as nanomechatronics ones and advanced materials including the sensors for detecting the pathogen loads at very low concentrations or site-specific delivery of therapeutics, and real-time protections against the pandemic outbreaks by nanorobots can provide outstanding biomedical breakthroughs. Considering the unique characteristics of pathogens particularly the newly-emerged ones and avoiding the exaggerated optimism or simplistic views on the prophylactic and therapeutic approaches including the one-size-fits-all ones or presenting multiple medications that may be associated with synergistic toxicities rather than enhanced efficiencies might pave the way towards the development of more appropriate treatment strategies with reduced safety concerns. This paper highlights the significance of nanoplatforms against the viral disorders and their capabilities of genome editing that may facilitate taking more appropriate measures against SARS-CoV-2.
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Affiliation(s)
- Parichehr Hassanzadeh
- Nanotechnology Research Center, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 13169-43551, Iran.
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6
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Shermeh AS, Zahedifard F, Habibzadeh S, Taheri T, Rafati S, Seyed N. Evaluation of protection induced by in vitro maturated BMDCs presenting CD8 + T cell stimulating peptides after a heterologous vaccination regimen in BALB/c model against Leishmania major. Exp Parasitol 2021; 223:108082. [PMID: 33581108 DOI: 10.1016/j.exppara.2021.108082] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2020] [Revised: 01/07/2021] [Accepted: 01/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Leishmaniasis is a complex vector-borne disease mediated by Leishmania parasite and a strong and long-lasting CD4+ Th1 and CD8+-T cell immunity is required to control the infection. Thus far multivalent subunit vaccines have met this requirement more promisingly. However several full protein sequences cannot be easily arranged in one construct. Instead, new emerging immune-informatics based epitope formulations surpass this restriction. Herein, we aimed to examine the protective potential of a dendritic cell based vaccine presenting epitopes to CD8+ and CD4+-T cells in combination with DNA vaccine encoding the same epitopes against murine cutaneous leishmaniasis. Immature DCs were loaded with epitopes (selected from parasite proteome) in vitro with or without CpG oligonucleotides and were used to immunize BALB/c mice. Peptide coding DNA was used to boost the system and immunological responses were evaluated after Leishmania (L.) major infectious challenge. The pre-challenge response to included epitopes was Th1 polarized which potentially lowered the infection at early time points post-challenge but not at later weeks. Collectively, DC prime-DNA boost was found to be a promising approach for Th1 polarization however the constituent epitopes undoubtedly make a significant contribution in the protection outcome of the vaccine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Atefeh Sadeghi Shermeh
- Immunotherapy and Leishmania Vaccine Research Department, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Farnaz Zahedifard
- Immunotherapy and Leishmania Vaccine Research Department, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Sima Habibzadeh
- Immunotherapy and Leishmania Vaccine Research Department, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Tahereh Taheri
- Immunotherapy and Leishmania Vaccine Research Department, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Sima Rafati
- Immunotherapy and Leishmania Vaccine Research Department, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Negar Seyed
- Immunotherapy and Leishmania Vaccine Research Department, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran.
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7
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Hassanzadeh P. Nanotheranostics against COVID-19: From multivalent to immune-targeted materials. J Control Release 2020; 328:112-126. [PMID: 32882269 PMCID: PMC7457914 DOI: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2020.08.060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2020] [Revised: 08/27/2020] [Accepted: 08/28/2020] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
Destructive impacts of COVID-19 pandemic worldwide necessitates taking more appropriate measures for mitigating virus spread and development of the effective theranostic agents. In general, high heterogeneity of viruses is a major challenging issue towards the development of effective antiviral agents. Regarding the coronavirus, its high mutation rates can negatively affect virus detection process or the efficiency of drugs and vaccines in development or induce drug resistance. Bioengineered nanomaterials with suitable physicochemical characteristics for site-specific therapeutic delivery, highly-sensitive nanobiosensors for detection of very low virus concentration, and real-time protections using the nanorobots can provide roadmaps towards the imminent breakthroughs in theranostics of a variety of diseases including the COVID-19. Besides revolutionizing the classical disinfection procedures, state-of-the-art nanotechnology-based approaches enable providing the analytical tools for accelerated monitoring of coronavirus and associated biomarkers or drug delivery towards the pulmonary system or other affected organs. Multivalent nanomaterials capable of interaction with multivalent pathogens including the viruses could be suitable candidates for viral detection and prevention of further infections. Besides the inactivation or destruction of the virus, functionalized nanoparticles capable of modulating patient's immune response might be of great significance for attenuating the exaggerated inflammatory reactions or development of the effective nanovaccines and medications against the virus pandemics including the COVID-19.
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Affiliation(s)
- Parichehr Hassanzadeh
- Nanotechnology Research Center, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 13169-43551, Iran.
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8
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Hasanzadeh S, Habibi M, Shokrgozar MA, Ahangari Cohan R, Ahmadi K, Asadi Karam MR, Bouzari S. In silico analysis and in vivo assessment of a novel epitope-based vaccine candidate against uropathogenic Escherichia coli. Sci Rep 2020; 10:16258. [PMID: 33004862 PMCID: PMC7530722 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-73179-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2019] [Accepted: 09/10/2020] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) are common pathogens in urinary tract infections (UTIs), which show resistance to antibiotics. Therefore, there is a need for a vaccine to reduce susceptibility to the infection. In the present study, bioinformatics approaches were employed to predict the best B and T-cell epitopes of UPEC virulence proteins to develop a multiepitope vaccine candidate against UPEC. Then, the efficacy of the candidate was studied with and without Freund adjuvant. Using bioinformatics methods, 3 epitope-rich domains of IutA and FimH antigens were selected to construct the fusion. Molecular docking and Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation were employed to investigate in silico interaction between designed vaccine and Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4). Our results showed that the levels of IgG and IgA antibodies were improved in the serum and mucosal samples of the vaccinated mice, and the IgG responses were maintained for at least 6 months. The fusion protein was also able to enhance the level of cytokines IFN.γ (Th1), IL.4 (Th2), and IL.17. In challenge experiments, all vaccine combinations showed high potency in the protection of the urinary tract even after 6 months post first injection. The present study indicates that the designed candidate is able to evoke strong protective responses which warrant further studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara Hasanzadeh
- Department of Molecular Biology, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Mehri Habibi
- Department of Molecular Biology, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | | | | | - Khadijeh Ahmadi
- Infectious and Tropical Diseases Research Center, Hormozgan Health Institute, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran
| | | | - Saeid Bouzari
- Department of Molecular Biology, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran.
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9
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Rabienia M, Roudbari Z, Ghanbariasad A, Abdollahi A, Mohammadi E, Mortazavidehkordi N, Farjadfar A. Exploring membrane proteins of Leishmania major to design a new multi-epitope vaccine using immunoinformatics approach. Eur J Pharm Sci 2020; 152:105423. [PMID: 32534195 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejps.2020.105423] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2020] [Revised: 05/18/2020] [Accepted: 06/08/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Leishmaniasis is one of the major global endemic diseases. Among all the different forms of the disease, cutaneous Leishmaniasis has the highest prevalence worldwide. Treatment with current drugs has not had a significant effect on the improvement of the disease. An attempt to replace an appropriate vaccine that can stimulate host cellular immunity and induce the response of Major histocompatibility complex I (MHCI) and Major histocompatibility complex II (MHCII) against Leishmania is essential. Vaccine production remains a challenge despite the use of different antigens for vaccination against Leishmania major. Hence, we were used the immunoinformatics approach to design a new multi-epitope vaccine against L. major using immunogenic outer membrane proteins. Helper T-lymphocyte (HTL) and Cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes were predicted and for final confirmation of the selected epitopes, docking analysis, and molecular dynamics simulation was performed. Then, GDGDG linker and profilin adjuvant were added to enhance the immunity of vaccines. The designed vaccine was evaluated in terms of molecular weight, PI, immunogenicity, and allergenicity. Moreover, the secondary and three-dimensional structure of the final construct was identified. In silico cloning approach was carried out to improve expression of the vaccine construct. Finally, molecular docking, followed by molecular dynamic was performed to determine the interaction between multi-epitope vaccine and TLR11. We hope that the designed vaccine can be a good candidate for the development of cutaneous leishmaniasis vaccine. but its effectiveness should be assessed in vivo.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mahsa Rabienia
- Department of Medical Biotechnology, Fasa University of Medical Sciences, Fasa, Iran
| | - Zahra Roudbari
- Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Jiroft, Jiroft, Iran
| | - Ali Ghanbariasad
- Department of Medical Biotechnology, Fasa University of Medical Sciences, Fasa, Iran
| | - Abbas Abdollahi
- Department of Medical Microbiology, Fasa University of Medical Sciences, Fasa, Iran
| | - Elyas Mohammadi
- Department of Animal Science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
| | | | - Akbar Farjadfar
- Department of Medical Biotechnology, Fasa University of Medical Sciences, Fasa, Iran.
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10
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Hamrouni S, Bras-Gonçalves R, Kidar A, Aoun K, Chamakh-Ayari R, Petitdidier E, Messaoudi Y, Pagniez J, Lemesre JL, Meddeb-Garnaoui A. Design of multi-epitope peptides containing HLA class-I and class-II-restricted epitopes derived from immunogenic Leishmania proteins, and evaluation of CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses induced in cured cutaneous leishmaniasis subjects. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2020; 14:e0008093. [PMID: 32176691 PMCID: PMC7098648 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0008093] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2019] [Revised: 03/26/2020] [Accepted: 01/27/2020] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Human leishmaniasis is a public health problem worldwide for which the development of a vaccine remains a challenge. T cell-mediated immune responses are crucial for protection. Peptide vaccines based on the identification of immunodominant T cell epitopes able to induce T cell specific immune responses constitute a promising strategy. Here, we report the identification of human leukocyte antigen class-I (HLA-I) and -II (HLA-II)-restricted multi-epitope peptides from Leishmania proteins that we have previously described as vaccine candidates. Promastigote Surface Antigen (PSA), LmlRAB (L. major large RAB GTPase) and Histone (H2B) were screened, in silico, for T cell epitopes. 6 HLA-I and 5 HLA-II-restricted multi-epitope peptides, able to bind to the most frequent HLA molecules, were designed and used as pools to stimulate PBMCs from individuals with healed cutaneous leishmaniasis. IFN-γ, IL-10, TNF-α and granzyme B (GrB) production was evaluated by ELISA/CBA. The frequency of IFN-γ-producing T cells was quantified by ELISpot. T cells secreting cytokines and memory T cells were analyzed by flow cytometry. 16 of 25 peptide pools containing HLA-I, HLA-II or HLA-I and -II peptides were able to induce specific and significant IFN-γ levels. No IL-10 was detected. 6 peptide pools were selected among those inducing the highest IFN-γ levels for further characterization. 3/6 pools were able to induce a significant increase of the percentages of CD4+IFN-γ+, CD8+IFN-γ+ and CD4+GrB+ T cells. The same pools also induced a significant increase of the percentages of bifunctional IFN-γ+/TNF-α+CD4+ and/or central memory T cells. We identified highly promiscuous HLA-I and -II restricted epitope combinations from H2B, PSA and LmlRAB proteins that stimulate both CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses in recovered individuals. These multi-epitope peptides could be used as potential components of a polytope vaccine for human leishmaniasis. The control of leishmaniasis, a neglected tropical disease of public health importance, caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania, mainly relies on chemotherapy, which is highly toxic. Currently, there is no vaccine against human leishmaniasis. Peptide-based vaccines consisting of T cell epitopes identified within proteins of interest by epitope predictive algorithms are a promising strategy for vaccine development. Here, we identified multi-epitope peptides composed of HLA-I and -II-restricted epitopes, using immunoinformatic tools, within Leishmania proteins previously described as potential vaccine candidates. We showed that multi-epitope peptides used as pools were able to activate IFN-γ producing CD4+ as well as CD8+ T cells, both required for parasite elimination. In addition, granzyme B-producing CD4+ T cells, bifunctional CD4+ IFN-γ+/TNF-α+ and/or TNF-α+/IL-2+ T cells as well as CD4+ and CD8+ central memory T cells, all involved in Leishmania infection control, were significantly increased in response to multi-epitope peptide stimulation. As far as we know, no study has described the detection of both CD4+ and CD8+ T cell populations in response to stimulation by both HLA-I and II-restricted peptides in humans. The immunogenic HLA-I and -II-restricted multi-epitope peptides identified in this study could constitute potential vaccine candidates against human leishmaniasis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarra Hamrouni
- Laboratoire de Parasitologie Médicale, Biotechnologie et Biomolécules, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisie
- Faculté des Sciences de Bizerte, Université de Carthage, Tunis, Tunisie
- UMR INTERTRYP, Université de Montpellier, IRD, CIRAD, Montpellier, France
| | | | | | - Karim Aoun
- Laboratoire de Parasitologie Médicale, Biotechnologie et Biomolécules, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisie
| | - Rym Chamakh-Ayari
- Laboratoire de Parasitologie Médicale, Biotechnologie et Biomolécules, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisie
- Faculté des Sciences de Bizerte, Université de Carthage, Tunis, Tunisie
| | - Elodie Petitdidier
- UMR INTERTRYP, Université de Montpellier, IRD, CIRAD, Montpellier, France
| | - Yasmine Messaoudi
- Laboratoire de Parasitologie Médicale, Biotechnologie et Biomolécules, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisie
- Faculté des Sciences de Bizerte, Université de Carthage, Tunis, Tunisie
- UMR INTERTRYP, Université de Montpellier, IRD, CIRAD, Montpellier, France
| | - Julie Pagniez
- UMR INTERTRYP, Université de Montpellier, IRD, CIRAD, Montpellier, France
| | - Jean-Loup Lemesre
- UMR INTERTRYP, Université de Montpellier, IRD, CIRAD, Montpellier, France
| | - Amel Meddeb-Garnaoui
- Laboratoire de Parasitologie Médicale, Biotechnologie et Biomolécules, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisie
- * E-mail:
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11
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Zhang J, He J, Li J, Zhou Q, Chen H, Zheng Z, Chen Q, Chen D, Chen J. The immunogenicity and protective immunity of multi-epitopes DNA prime-protein boost vaccines encoding Amastin-Kmp-11, Kmp11-Gp63 and Amastin-Gp63 against visceral leishmaniasis. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0230381. [PMID: 32176727 PMCID: PMC7075555 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0230381] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2019] [Accepted: 02/28/2020] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is the most fatal form of leishmaniasis if left untreated and 50,000 to 90,000 new cases of VL occur worldwide each year. Although various vaccines had been studied in animal models, none of them was eligible to prevent human from infections. In this study, according to the silico analysis of Leishmania Amastin, Kmp-11 and Gp63 protein, dominant epitope sequences of these proteins were selected and linked to construct dominant multi-epitopes DNA and protein vaccines (Amastin-Kmp-11, Amastin-Gp63 and Kmp-11-Gp63) against VL. BALB/c mice were immunized with a DNA prime-protein boost immunization strategy and challenged with a new Leishmania parasite strain isolated from a VL patient. After immunization, the results including specific antibody titers, IL-4 and TNF-α levels, and CD4 and CD8 T cell proportion suggested the potent immunogenicity of the three vaccines. After infection, the results of spleen parasite burdens in the three vaccine groups were significantly lower than those of control groups, and the parasite reduction rates of Amastin-Kmp-11, Amastin-Gp63 and Kmp-11-Gp63 groups were 89.38%, 91.01% and 88.42%, respectively. Spleen smear observation and liver histopathological changes showed that all vaccine groups could produce significant immunoprotection against VL and Amastin-Gp63 vaccine was the best. In conclusion, our work demonstrated that the three dominant multi-epitopes Amastin-Kmp-11, Amastin-Gp63 and Kmp-11-Gp63 DNA prime-protein boost vaccines might be new vaccine candidates for VL, and the Amastin-Gp63 vaccine have best efficacy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jianhui Zhang
- Department of Pathogenic Biology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Jinlei He
- Department of Pathogenic Biology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Jiao Li
- Department of Pathogenic Biology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Qi Zhou
- Department of Pathogenic Biology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Han Chen
- Department of Pathogenic Biology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Zhiwan Zheng
- Department of Pathogenic Biology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Qiwei Chen
- Department of Pathogenic Biology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Dali Chen
- Department of Pathogenic Biology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Jianping Chen
- Department of Pathogenic Biology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.,Animal Disease Prevention and Food Safety Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
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12
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Bordbar A, Bagheri KP, Ebrahimi S, Parvizi P. Bioinformatics analyses of immunogenic T-cell epitopes of LeIF and PpSP15 proteins from Leishmania major and sand fly saliva used as model antigens for the design of a multi-epitope vaccine to control leishmaniasis. INFECTION GENETICS AND EVOLUTION 2020; 80:104189. [PMID: 31931259 DOI: 10.1016/j.meegid.2020.104189] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2019] [Revised: 01/05/2020] [Accepted: 01/08/2020] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Leishmaniasis is caused by protozoan parasites belonging to 20 Leishmania species. This infectious disease is transmitted by bites of infected phlebotomine sandflies, and is widespread in 97 countries throughout the world. No preventive or effective vaccine has been developed yet. In this study, diverse computational methods were integrated to calculate evolutionary divergence, immunogenicity, IFN-γ production, epitope conservancy, and population coverage of protein fusion models of LeIF-SP15 namely SaLeish. Immunogenicity of LeIF of Leishmania species and SP15 of sandfly saliva has not been investigated in-silico in fusion form. A complete set of 9-mer MHC class I and 15-mer MHC class II peptides were identified with a high affinity for the antigenic epitopes of SaLeish inducing specific responses of CD8+ and CD4+ T cells from BALB/c and human. Our preferred approach was determining truncated fragment of SaLeish rather than a whole length bearing the capacity to trigger specific immune response. Phylogenetic analysis showed that LeIF protein is under balancing selection and is conserved between different Leishmania species. Selected SaLeish model contained 19 and 35 antigenic peptides for MHC class I and II, respectively, with strong binding affinity to both highly frequent HLA-I and HLA-II alleles. Analysis of class I CTL epitopes showed that promiscuous peptides of KSLKADIRK, MSCIPHCKY, LQAGVIVAV, and YQYYGFVAM have greater affinity to interact with HLA-A*01:01, HLA-A*02 (03, 06), HLA-A*30:02, HLA-B*40:01, and HLA-B*52:01 molecules. Population coverage with a range of 78-85% confirmed SaLeish-Model4 as an appropriate vaccine candidate among Persian, South Asia, Europe, and North America population. Also, predicted antigenic epitopes of AKPEIRTFSNVLIKY, TRVQDDLRKLQAGVI, and VALFSATMPEEVLEL corresponding to MHC class II were found to provide strong ability to produce IFNγ toward TH(1)-biased-DTH responses. Findings of the current investigation warrant the future experimental assessment of promising SaLeish prophylaxis vaccine that is capable to enhance both innate and specific cellular immune responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ali Bordbar
- Molecular Systematics Laboratory, Parasitology Department, Microbiology Research Center, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran.
| | - Kamran Pooshang Bagheri
- Venom and Biotherapeutics Molecules Lab., Biotechnology Dept., Biotechnology Research Center, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Sahar Ebrahimi
- Molecular Systematics Laboratory, Parasitology Department, Microbiology Research Center, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Parviz Parvizi
- Molecular Systematics Laboratory, Parasitology Department, Microbiology Research Center, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran.
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13
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Ropón-Palacios G, Chenet-Zuta ME, Otazu K, Olivos-Ramirez GE, Camps I. Novel multi-epitope protein containing conserved epitopes from different Leishmania species as potential vaccine candidate: Integrated immunoinformatics and molecular dynamics approach. Comput Biol Chem 2019; 83:107157. [PMID: 31751887 DOI: 10.1016/j.compbiolchem.2019.107157] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2019] [Revised: 10/08/2019] [Accepted: 10/28/2019] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
Leishmaniosis, caused by intracellular parasites of the genus Leishmania, has become a serious public health problem around the world, and for which there are currently extensive limitations. In this work, a theoretical model was proposed for the development of a multi-epitope vaccine. The protein GP63 of the parasite was selected for epitopes prediction, due to its important biological role for the infection process and abundance. IEDB tools were used to determine epitopes B and T in Leishmania braziliensis; besides, other conserved epitopes in three species were selected. To improve immunogenicity, 50S ribosomal protein L7 / L12 (ID: P9WHE3) was used as a domain of adjuvant in the assembly process. The folding arrangement of the vaccine was obtained through homologous modeling multi-template with MODELLER v9.21, and a Ramachandran plot analysis was done. Furthermore, physicochemical properties were described with the ProtParam tool and secondary structure prediction combining GOR-IV and SOPMA tools. Finally, a molecular dynamics simulation (50 ns) was performed to establish flexibility and conformational changes. The analysis of the results indicates high conservancy in the epitopes predicted among the four species. Moreover, Ramachandran plot, physicochemical parameters, and secondary structure prediction suggest a stable conformation of the vaccine, after a minimum conformational change that was evaluated with the free energy landscape. The conformational change does not drive any substantial change for epitope exposition on the surface. The vaccine proposed could be tested experimentally to guide new approaches in the development of pan-vaccines; vaccines with regions conserved in multiple species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Georcki Ropón-Palacios
- Laboratório de Modelagem Computacional - LaModel, Instituto de Ciências Exatas - ICEx, Universidade Federal de Alfenas - UNIFAL-MG, Alfenas Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Manuel E Chenet-Zuta
- Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Avenida Universitaria N°3004 Distrito Federal, Mexico
| | - Kewin Otazu
- Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional del Altiplano, Av. Floral No1153, Puno, Peru
| | - Gustavo E Olivos-Ramirez
- Laboratorio de Evaluación de los Recursos Acuáticos y Cultivo de Especies Auxiliares, Departamento Académico de Biología, Microbiología y Biotecnología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional del Santa, Nuevo Chimbote, Peru
| | - Ihosvany Camps
- Laboratório de Modelagem Computacional - LaModel, Instituto de Ciências Exatas - ICEx, Universidade Federal de Alfenas - UNIFAL-MG, Alfenas Minas Gerais, Brazil.
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14
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Akya A, Farasat A, Ghadiri K, Rostamian M. Identification of HLA-I restricted epitopes in six vaccine candidates of Leishmania tropica using immunoinformatics and molecular dynamics simulation approaches. INFECTION GENETICS AND EVOLUTION 2019; 75:103953. [PMID: 31284043 DOI: 10.1016/j.meegid.2019.103953] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2019] [Revised: 07/01/2019] [Accepted: 07/04/2019] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
In spite of numerous studies on vaccination for various species of Leishmania, research on the development of an effective vaccine for L. tropica is very scarce. In silico epitope prediction is a new way to survey the best vaccine candidates. Here, we predicted the best epitopes of six L. tropica antigens with vaccine capability against this pathogen, using highly frequent HLA-I alleles. Based on the frequent HLA alleles, the protein sequences were screened individually using four different MHC prediction applications, namely SYFPEITHI, ProPredI, BIMAS, and IEDB. Several in silico assays including clustering, human similarity exclusion, epitope conservancy prediction, investigating in experimental records, immunogenicity prediction, and prediction of population coverage were performed to narrow the results and to find the best epitopes. The selected epitopes and their restricted HLA-I alleles were docked and the final epitopes with the lowest binding energy (the highest binding affinity) were chosen. Finally, the stability and the binding properties of the best epitope-HLA-I combinations were analyzed using molecular dynamics simulation studies. We found ten potential peptides with strong binding affinity to highly frequent HLA-I alleles that can be further evaluated as vaccine targets against L. tropica.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alisha Akya
- Infectious Diseases Research Center, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran
| | - Alireza Farasat
- Cellular and Molecular Research Center, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin, Iran
| | - Keyghobad Ghadiri
- Infectious Diseases Research Center, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran
| | - Mosayeb Rostamian
- Infectious Diseases Research Center, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.
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15
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He J, Huang F, Zhang J, Chen H, Chen Q, Zhang J, Li J, Zheng Z, Chen D, Chen J. DNA prime-protein boost vaccine encoding HLA-A2, HLA-A24 and HLA-DR1 restricted epitopes of CaNA2 against visceral leishmaniasis. Immunology 2018; 156:94-108. [PMID: 30285279 DOI: 10.1111/imm.13007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2018] [Revised: 09/09/2018] [Accepted: 09/26/2018] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Visceral leishmaniasis is a tropical and neglected disease with an estimated 200 000-400 000 cases and 60 000 deaths worldwide each year. Currently, no clinically valid vaccine is available for this disease. In this study, we formulated DNA and protein vaccines encoding HLA-A2, HLA-A24 and HLA-DR1 restricted epitopes of CaNA2 against visceral leishmaniasis. We predicted the secondary and tertiary structures, surface properties, subcellular localization, potential binding sites and HLA-A2, HLA-A24 and HLA-DR1 restricted epitopes of CaNA2. The best candidate CpG ODN (2395, M362, D-SL03 or 685) was screened out as a DNA vaccine adjuvant. We also prepared Kmp-11 and Kmp-11/CaNA2 DNA and protein vaccines, respectively, for comparison. BALB/c mice were immunized with a DNA prime-protein boost immunization strategy and challenged with a newly isolated Leishmania strain from an individual with visceral leishmaniasis. The IgG antibody titers showed that our vaccine had strong immunogenicity with a long duration, especially cellular immunity. The spleen parasite burden of each group demonstrated that the CaNA2 vaccine had a certain immune protective effect on visceral leishmaniasis in BALB/c mice, and the amastigote reduction rate reached 76%. Preliminary safety tests confirmed the safety of the vaccine. Our work demonstrates that the HLA-A2, HLA-A24 and HLA-DR1 restricted epitope CaNA2 DNA prime-protein boost vaccine may be a safe and effective epitope vaccine candidate against visceral leishmaniasis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jinlei He
- Department of Parasitology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Fan Huang
- Surgical Department, Chengdu Shuangliu Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Jianhui Zhang
- Department of Parasitology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Han Chen
- Department of Parasitology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Qiwei Chen
- Department of Parasitology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Junrong Zhang
- Department of Parasitology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Jiao Li
- Department of Parasitology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Zhiwan Zheng
- Department of Parasitology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Dali Chen
- Department of Parasitology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Jianping Chen
- Department of Parasitology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.,Animal Disease Prevention and Food Safety Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
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16
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Dikhit MR, Das S, Mahantesh V, Kumar A, Singh AK, Dehury B, Rout AK, Ali V, Sahoo GC, Topno RK, Pandey K, Das VNR, Bimal S, Das P. The potential HLA Class I-restricted epitopes derived from LeIF and TSA of Leishmania donovani evoke anti-leishmania CD8+ T lymphocyte response. Sci Rep 2018; 8:14175. [PMID: 30242172 PMCID: PMC6154976 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-32040-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2018] [Accepted: 08/14/2018] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
To explore new protective measure against visceral leishmaniasis, reverse vaccinology approach was employed to identify key immunogenic regions which can mediate long-term immunity. In-depth computational analysis revealed nine promiscuous epitopes which can possibly be presented by 46 human leukocyte antigen, thereby broadening the worldwide population up to 94.16%. This is of reasonable significance that most of the epitopes shared 100% sequence homology with other Leishmania species and could evoke a common pattern of protective immune response. Transporter associated with antigen processing binding affinity, molecular docking approach followed by dynamics simulation and human leukocyte antigen stabilization assay suggested that the best five optimal set of epitopes bind in between α1 and α2 binding groove with sufficient affinity and stability which allows the translocation of intact epitope to the cell surface. Fascinatingly, the human leukocyte antigen stabilization assay exhibited a modest correlation with the positive immunogenicity score predicted by class I pMHC immunogenicity predictor. A support for this notion came from ELISA and FACS analysis where the epitopes as a cocktail induced CD8+ IFN-γ and Granzyme B levels significantly in treated visceral leishmaniasis subject which suggests the immunogenic ability of the selected epitopes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manas Ranjan Dikhit
- BioMedical Informatics Division, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Agamkuan, Patna, 800007, Bihar, India.,Department of Immunology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Agamkuan, Patna, 800007, Bihar, India
| | - Sushmita Das
- Department of Microbiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, 801507, Bihar, India
| | - Vijaya Mahantesh
- Department of Immunology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Agamkuan, Patna, 800007, Bihar, India
| | - Akhilesh Kumar
- Department of Immunology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Agamkuan, Patna, 800007, Bihar, India
| | - Ashish Kumar Singh
- Department of Immunology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Agamkuan, Patna, 800007, Bihar, India
| | - Budheswar Dehury
- BioMedical Informatics Centre, ICMR-Regional Medical Research Centre, Bhubaneswar, 751023, Odisha, India
| | - Ajaya Kumar Rout
- Biotechnology Laboratory, ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore, Kolkata, 700120, West Bengal, India
| | - Vahab Ali
- Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Agamkuan, Patna, 800007, Bihar, India
| | - Ganesh Chandra Sahoo
- BioMedical Informatics Division, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Agamkuan, Patna, 800007, Bihar, India
| | - Roshan Kamal Topno
- Department of Epidemiology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Agamkuan, Patna, 800007, Bihar, India
| | - Krishna Pandey
- Department of Clinical Medicine, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Agamkuan, Patna, 800007, Bihar, India
| | - V N R Das
- Department of Clinical Medicine, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Agamkuan, Patna, 800007, Bihar, India
| | - Sanjiva Bimal
- Department of Immunology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Agamkuan, Patna, 800007, Bihar, India
| | - Pradeep Das
- Department of Molecular Parasitology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Agamkuan, Patna, 800007, Bihar, India.
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17
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De Brito RCF, Cardoso JMDO, Reis LES, Vieira JF, Mathias FAS, Roatt BM, Aguiar-Soares RDDO, Ruiz JC, Resende DDM, Reis AB. Peptide Vaccines for Leishmaniasis. Front Immunol 2018; 9:1043. [PMID: 29868006 PMCID: PMC5958606 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.01043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2018] [Accepted: 04/26/2018] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Due to an increase in the incidence of leishmaniases worldwide, the development of new strategies such as prophylactic vaccines to prevent infection and decrease the disease have become a high priority. Classic vaccines against leishmaniases were based on live or attenuated parasites or their subunits. Nevertheless, the use of whole parasite or their subunits for vaccine production has numerous disadvantages. Therefore, the use of Leishmania peptides to design more specific vaccines against leishmaniases seems promising. Moreover, peptides have several benefits in comparison with other kinds of antigens, for instance, good stability, absence of potentially damaging materials, antigen low complexity, and low-cost to scale up. By contrast, peptides are poor immunogenic alone, and they need to be delivered correctly. In this context, several approaches described in this review are useful to solve these drawbacks. Approaches, such as, peptides in combination with potent adjuvants, cellular vaccinations, adenovirus, polyepitopes, or DNA vaccines have been used to develop peptide-based vaccines. Recent advancements in peptide vaccine design, chimeric, or polypeptide vaccines and nanovaccines based on particles attached or formulated with antigenic components or peptides have been increasingly employed to drive a specific immune response. In this review, we briefly summarize the old, current, and future stands on peptide-based vaccines, describing the disadvantages and benefits associated with them. We also propose possible approaches to overcome the related weaknesses of synthetic vaccines and suggest future guidelines for their development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rory C F De Brito
- Laboratório de Pesquisas Clínicas, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências Farmacêuticas/CiPharma, Escola de Farmácia, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil.,Laboratório de Imunopatologia, Núcleo de Pesquisas em Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil
| | - Jamille M De O Cardoso
- Laboratório de Imunopatologia, Núcleo de Pesquisas em Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil
| | - Levi E S Reis
- Laboratório de Pesquisas Clínicas, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências Farmacêuticas/CiPharma, Escola de Farmácia, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil.,Laboratório de Imunopatologia, Núcleo de Pesquisas em Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil
| | - Joao F Vieira
- Laboratório de Imunopatologia, Núcleo de Pesquisas em Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil
| | - Fernando A S Mathias
- Laboratório de Imunopatologia, Núcleo de Pesquisas em Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil
| | - Bruno M Roatt
- Laboratório de Pesquisas Clínicas, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências Farmacêuticas/CiPharma, Escola de Farmácia, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil.,Laboratório de Imunopatologia, Núcleo de Pesquisas em Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil.,Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia em Doenças Tropicais, Salvador, Brazil
| | - Rodrigo Dian D O Aguiar-Soares
- Laboratório de Imunopatologia, Núcleo de Pesquisas em Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil
| | - Jeronimo C Ruiz
- Grupo Informática de Biossistemas e Genômica, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências da Saúde, Instituto René Rachou, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.,Programa de Pós-graduação em Biologia Computacional e Sistemas, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Daniela de M Resende
- Grupo Informática de Biossistemas e Genômica, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências da Saúde, Instituto René Rachou, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.,Programa de Pós-graduação em Biologia Computacional e Sistemas, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Alexandre B Reis
- Laboratório de Pesquisas Clínicas, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências Farmacêuticas/CiPharma, Escola de Farmácia, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil.,Laboratório de Imunopatologia, Núcleo de Pesquisas em Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil.,Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia em Doenças Tropicais, Salvador, Brazil
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18
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Fernández L, Carrillo E, Sánchez-Sampedro L, Sánchez C, Ibarra-Meneses AV, Jimenez MA, Almeida VDA, Esteban M, Moreno J. Antigenicity of Leishmania-Activated C-Kinase Antigen (LACK) in Human Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells, and Protective Effect of Prime-Boost Vaccination With pCI-neo-LACK Plus Attenuated LACK-Expressing Vaccinia Viruses in Hamsters. Front Immunol 2018; 9:843. [PMID: 29740446 PMCID: PMC5924775 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.00843] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2017] [Accepted: 04/05/2018] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Leishmania-activated C-kinase antigen (LACK) is a highly conserved protein among Leishmania species and is considered a viable vaccine candidate for human leishmaniasis. In animal models, prime-boost vaccination with LACK-expressing plasmids plus attenuated vaccinia viruses (modified vaccinia Ankara [MVA] and mutant M65) expressing LACK, has been shown to protect against cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL). Further, LACK demonstrated to induce the production of protective cytokines in patients with active CL or cured visceral leishmaniasis, as well as in asymptomatic individuals from endemic areas. However, whether LACK is capable to trigger cytokine release by peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients cured of CL due to Leishmania infantum (L. infantum) or induce protection in L. infantum-infected hamsters [visceral leishmaniasis (VL) model], has not yet been analyzed. The present work examines the ex vivo immunogenicity of LACK in cured VL and CL patients, and asymptomatic subjects from an L. infantum area. It also evaluates the vaccine potential of LACK against L. infantum infection in hamsters, in a protocol of priming with plasmid pCI-neo-LACK (DNA-LACK) followed by a booster with the poxvirus vectors MVA-LACK or M65-LACK. LACK-stimulated PBMC from both asymptomatic and cured subjects responded by producing IFN-γ, TNF-α, and granzyme B (Th1-type response). Further, 78% of PBMC samples that responded to soluble Leishmania antigen showed IFN-γ secretion following stimulation with LACK. In hamsters, the protocol of DNA-LACK prime/MVA-LACK or M65-LACK virus boost vaccination significantly reduced the amount of Leishmania DNA in the liver and bone marrow, with no differences recorded between the use of MVA or M65 virus vector options. In summary, the Th1-type and cytotoxic responses elicited by LACK in PBMC from human subjects infected with L. infantum, and the parasite protective effect of prime/boost vaccination in hamsters with DNA-LACK/MVA-LACK and DNA-LACK/M65-LACK, revealed the significance of LACK in activating human and hamster immune responses and support LACK to be a valuable candidate for inclusion in a vaccine against human VL.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Fernández
- WHO Collaborating Center for Leishmaniasis, National Center of Microbiology, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
| | - Eugenia Carrillo
- WHO Collaborating Center for Leishmaniasis, National Center of Microbiology, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
| | - Lucas Sánchez-Sampedro
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CNB-CSIC), Madrid, Spain
| | - Carmen Sánchez
- WHO Collaborating Center for Leishmaniasis, National Center of Microbiology, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
| | - Ana Victoria Ibarra-Meneses
- WHO Collaborating Center for Leishmaniasis, National Center of Microbiology, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
| | - M Angeles Jimenez
- Departamento Medicina y Cirugia Animal, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | | | - Mariano Esteban
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CNB-CSIC), Madrid, Spain
| | - Javier Moreno
- WHO Collaborating Center for Leishmaniasis, National Center of Microbiology, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
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19
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Doytchinova IA, Flower DR. In silico prediction of cancer immunogens: current state of the art. BMC Immunol 2018; 19:11. [PMID: 29544447 PMCID: PMC5856276 DOI: 10.1186/s12865-018-0248-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2017] [Accepted: 03/06/2018] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Cancer kills 8 million annually worldwide. Although survival rates in prevalent cancers continue to increase, many cancers have no effective treatment, prompting the search for new and improved protocols. Immunotherapy is a new and exciting addition to the anti-cancer arsenal. The successful and accurate identification of aberrant host proteins acting as antigens for vaccination and immunotherapy is a key aspiration for both experimental and computational research. Here we describe key elements of in silico prediction, including databases of cancer antigens and bleeding-edge methodology for their prediction. We also highlight the role dendritic cell vaccines can play and how they can act as delivery mechanisms for epitope ensemble vaccines. Immunoinformatics can help streamline the discovery and utility of Cancer Immunogens.
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Affiliation(s)
- Irini A. Doytchinova
- Faculty of Pharmacy, Medical University of Sofia, 2 Dunav st, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria
| | - Darren R. Flower
- School of Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, B4 7ET UK
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20
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Llanes A, Restrepo CM, Lleonart R. VianniaTopes: a database of predicted immunogenic peptides for Leishmania (Viannia) species. Database (Oxford) 2018; 2018:5144431. [PMID: 30358842 PMCID: PMC6201054 DOI: 10.1093/database/bay111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2018] [Revised: 09/11/2018] [Accepted: 09/21/2018] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Leishmania is a protozoan parasite causing several disease presentations collectively known as leishmaniasis. Pathogenic species of Leishmania are divided into two subgenera, L. (Leishmania) and L. (Viannia). Species belonging to the Viannia subgenus have only been reported in Central and South America. These species predominantly cause cutaneous leishmaniasis, but in some cases, parasites can migrate to the nasopharyngeal area and cause a highly disfiguring mucocutaneous presentation. Despite intensive efforts, no effective antileishmanial vaccine is available for use in humans, although a few candidates mainly designed for L. (Leishmania) species are now in clinical trials. After sequencing the genome of Leishmania panamensis, we noticed a high degree of sequence divergence among several orthologous proteins from both subgenera. Consequently, some of the previously published candidates may not work properly for species of the Viannia subgenus. To help in vaccine design, we predicted CD4+ and CD8+ T cell epitopes in the theoretical proteomes of four strains belonging to the Viannia subgenus. Prediction was performed with at least two independent bioinformatics tools, using the most frequent human major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I and class II alleles in the affected geographic area. Although predictions resulted in millions of peptides, relatively few of them were predicted to bind to several MHC alleles and can therefore be considered promiscuous epitopes. Comparison of our results to previous applications to species of the Leishmania subgenus confirmed that approximately half of the reported candidates are not present in Viannia proteins with a threshold of 80% sequence similarity and coverage. However, our prediction methodology was able to predict 70-100% of the candidates that could be found in Viannia. All the prediction data generated in this study are publicly available in an interactive database called VianniaTopes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alejandro Llanes
- Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología (INDICASAT AIP), Ciudad del Saber, Panama City, Panama
- Department of Biotechnology, Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur, India
| | - Carlos Mario Restrepo
- Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología (INDICASAT AIP), Ciudad del Saber, Panama City, Panama
| | - Ricardo Lleonart
- Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología (INDICASAT AIP), Ciudad del Saber, Panama City, Panama
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Vakili B, Nezafat N, Hatam GR, Zare B, Erfani N, Ghasemi Y. Proteome-scale identification of Leishmania infantum for novel vaccine candidates: A hierarchical subtractive approach. Comput Biol Chem 2017; 72:16-25. [PMID: 29291591 DOI: 10.1016/j.compbiolchem.2017.12.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2017] [Revised: 11/16/2017] [Accepted: 12/18/2017] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
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.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bahareh Vakili
- Department of Medical Biotechnology, School of Advanced Medical Sciences and Technologies, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
| | - Navid Nezafat
- Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
| | - Gholam Reza Hatam
- Basic Sciences in Infectious Diseases Research Center, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
| | - Bijan Zare
- Department of Medical Biotechnology, School of Advanced Medical Sciences and Technologies, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
| | - Nasrollah Erfani
- Institute for Cancer Research (ICR), School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
| | - Younes Ghasemi
- Department of Medical Biotechnology, School of Advanced Medical Sciences and Technologies, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran; Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran; Department of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Pharmacy, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
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Didwania N, Shadab M, Sabur A, Ali N. Alternative to Chemotherapy-The Unmet Demand against Leishmaniasis. Front Immunol 2017; 8:1779. [PMID: 29312309 PMCID: PMC5742582 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2017.01779] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2017] [Accepted: 11/28/2017] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Leishmaniasis is a neglected protozoan disease that mainly affects the tropical as well as subtropical countries of the world. The primary option to control the disease still relies on chemotherapy. However, a hindrance to treatments owing to the emergence of drug-resistant parasites, enormous side effects of the drugs, their high cost, and requirement of long course hospitalization has added to the existing problems of leishmaniasis containment program. This review highlights the prospects of immunotherapy and/or immunochemotherapy to address the limitations for current treatment measures for leishmaniasis. In addition to the progress in alternate therapeutic strategies, the possibility and advances in developing preventive measures against the disease have been pointed. The review highlights our recent understandings of the protective immunology that can be exploited to develop an effective vaccine against leishmaniasis. Moreover, an update on the approaches that have evolved over the recent years are predominantly focused to overcome the current challenges in developing immunotherapeutic as well as prophylactic antileishmanial vaccines is discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicky Didwania
- Infectious Diseases and Immunology Division, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata, India
| | - Md Shadab
- Infectious Diseases and Immunology Division, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata, India
| | - Abdus Sabur
- Infectious Diseases and Immunology Division, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata, India
| | - Nahid Ali
- Infectious Diseases and Immunology Division, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata, India
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Construction of a Recombinant OmpC Dominant Epitope-Based Vaccine Against Escherichia coli and Evaluation of Its Immunogenicity and Protective Immunity. Jundishapur J Microbiol 2017. [DOI: 10.5812/jjm.55652] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
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Lima-Junior JDC, Morgado FN, Conceição-Silva F. How Can Elispot Add Information to Improve Knowledge on Tropical Diseases? Cells 2017; 6:cells6040031. [PMID: 28961208 PMCID: PMC5755491 DOI: 10.3390/cells6040031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2017] [Revised: 09/12/2017] [Accepted: 09/14/2017] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Elispot has been used as an important tool for detecting immune cells' products and functions and has facilitated the understanding of host-pathogen interaction. Despite the incredible diversity of possibilities, two main approaches have been developed: the immunopathogenesis and diagnosis/prognosis of infectious diseases as well as cancer research. Much has been described on the topics of allergy, autoimmune diseases, and HIV-Aids, however, Elispot can also be applied to other infectious diseases, mainly leishmaniasis, malaria, some viruses, helminths and mycosis usually classified as tropical diseases. The comprehension of the function, concentration and diversity of the immune response in the infectious disease is pointed out as crucial to the development of infection or disease in humans and animals. In this review we will describe the knowledge already obtained using Elispot as a method for accessing the profile of immune response as well as the recent advances in information about host-pathogen interaction in order to better understand the clinical outcome of a group of tropical and neglected diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Josué da Costa Lima-Junior
- Laboratório de Imunoparasitologia, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz/FIOCRUZ, Pavilhão 26-4° andar, sala 406-C, Av. Brasil 4365, Manguinhos, 21045-900 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
| | - Fernanda Nazaré Morgado
- Laboratório de Pesquisa em Leishmaniose, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz/FIOCRUZ, Pavilhão 26-5° andar, sala 509, Av. Brasil 4365, Manguinhos, 21045-900 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
| | - Fátima Conceição-Silva
- Laboratório de Imunoparasitologia, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz/FIOCRUZ, Pavilhão 26-4° andar, sala 406-C, Av. Brasil 4365, Manguinhos, 21045-900 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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Human leukemia antigen-A*0201-restricted epitopes of human endogenous retrovirus W family envelope (HERV-W env) induce strong cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses. Virol Sin 2017; 32:280-289. [PMID: 28840564 DOI: 10.1007/s12250-017-3984-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2017] [Accepted: 07/20/2017] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Human endogenous retrovirus W family (HERV-W) envelope (env) has been reported to be related to several human diseases, including autoimmune disorders, and it could activate innate immunity. However, there are no reports investigating whether human leukemia antigen (HLA)-A*0201+ restriction is involved in the immune response caused by HERV-W env in neuropsychiatric diseases. In the present study, HERV-W env-derived epitopes presented by HLA-A*0201 are described with the potential for use in adoptive immunotherapy. Five peptides displaying HLA-A*0201-binding motifs were predicted using SYFEPITHI and BIMAS, and synthesized. A CCK-8 assay showed peptides W, Q and T promoted lymphocyte proliferation. Stimulation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from HLA-A*0201+ donors with each of these peptides induced peptide-specific CD8+ T cells. High numbers of IFN-γ-secreting T cells were also detectable after several weekly stimulations with W, Q and T. Besides lysis of HERV-W env-loaded target cells, specific apoptosis was also observed. These data demonstrate that human T cells can be sensitized toward HERV-W env peptides (W, Q and T) and, moreover, pose a high killing potential toward HERV-W env-expressing U251 cells. In conclusion, peptides W Q and T, which are HERV-W env antigenic epitopes, have both antigenicity and immunogenicity, and can cause strong T cell immune responses. Our data strengthen the view that HERV-W env should be considered as an autoantigen that can induce autoimmunity in neuropsychiatric diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia. These data might provide an experimental foundation for a HERV-W env peptide vaccine and new insight into the treatment of neuropsychiatric diseases.
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Dikhit MR, Amit A, Singh AK, Kumar A, Mansuri R, Sinha S, Topno RK, Mishra R, Das VNR, Pandey K, Sahoo GC, Ali V, Bimal S, Das P. Vaccine potential of HLA-A2 epitopes from Leishmania
Cysteine Protease Type III (CPC). Parasite Immunol 2017; 39. [DOI: 10.1111/pim.12451] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2017] [Accepted: 06/15/2017] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- M. R. Dikhit
- Department of Bioinformatics; Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences; Patna India
| | - A. Amit
- Department of Immunology; Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences; Patna India
| | - A. K. Singh
- Department of Immunology; Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences; Patna India
- Department of Pathology; Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences; Patna India
| | - A. Kumar
- Department of Immunology; Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences; Patna India
| | - R. Mansuri
- Department of Bioinformatics; Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences; Patna India
| | - S. Sinha
- Department of Bioinformatics; Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences; Patna India
| | - R. K. Topno
- Department of Epidemiology; Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences; Patna India
| | - R. Mishra
- Department of Clinical Medicine; Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences; Patna India
| | - V. N. R. Das
- Department of Clinical Medicine; Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences; Patna India
| | - K. Pandey
- Department of Clinical Medicine; Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences; Patna India
| | - G. C. Sahoo
- Department of Bioinformatics; Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences; Patna India
| | - V. Ali
- Department of Biochemistry; Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences; Patna India
| | - S. Bimal
- Department of Immunology; Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences; Patna India
| | - P. Das
- Department of Molecular Parasitology; Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences; Patna India
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Dikhit MR, Kumar A, Amit A, Dehury B, Nathsharma YP, Ansari MY, Ali V, Topno RK, Das V, Pandey K, Sahoo GC, Bimal S, Das P. Mining the Proteome of Leishmania donovani for the Development of Novel MHC Class I Restricted Epitope for the Control of Visceral Leishmaniasis. J Cell Biochem 2017; 119:378-391. [PMID: 28585770 DOI: 10.1002/jcb.26190] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2017] [Accepted: 06/05/2017] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
Although, the precise host defence mechanism(s) is not completely understood, T cell-mediated immune responses is believed to play a pivotal role in controlling parasite infection. Here we target the stage dependent over expressed gene. Here, the consensus based computational approach was adopted for the screening of potential major histocompatibility complex class I restricted epitopes. Based on the computational analysis and previously published report, a set 19 antigenic proteins derived from Leishmania donovani were screened for further characterization as vaccine candidates. A total of 49 epitopes were predicted, which revealed a comprehensive binding affinity to the 40 different MHC class I supertypes. Based on the population coverage and HLA cross presentation, nine highly promiscuous epitopes such as LTYDDVWTV (P1), FLFPQRTAL(P2), FLFSNGAVV (P3), YIYNFGIRV (P4), YMTAAFAAL (P5), KLLRPFAPL (P6), FMLGWIVTI (P7), SLFERNKRV (P8), and SVWNRIFTL (P9) which have either a high or an intermediate TAP binding affinity were selected for further analysis. Theoretical population coverage analysis of polytope vaccine (P1-P9) revealed more than 92% population. Stimulation with the cocktail of peptide revealed a proliferative CD8+ T cell response and increased IFN-γ production. An upregulated NF-κB activity is thought to be play a pivotal role in T cell proliferation against the selected peptide. The Th1-type cytokine profile (presence of IFN-γ and absence of IL-10) suggests the potentiality of the cocktail of epitope as a subunit vaccine against leishmaniasis. However, the efficiency of these epitopes to trigger other Th1 cytokines and chemokines in a humanized mice model could explore its plausibility as a vaccine candidate. J. Cell. Biochem. 119: 378-391, 2018. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manas R Dikhit
- Department of Bioinformatics, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna 800007, India
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- Department of Immunology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna 800007, India
| | - Akhilesh Kumar
- Department of Immunology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna 800007, India
| | - Ajay Amit
- Department of Immunology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna 800007, India
| | - Budheswar Dehury
- Department of Bioinformatics, ICMR Regional Medical research Centre, Bhubaneswar, Odisha 751016, India
| | - Yangya Prasad Nathsharma
- Department of Bioinformatics, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna 800007, India
| | - Mohammad Yousuf Ansari
- Department of Bioinformatics, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna 800007, India
| | - Vahab Ali
- Departmentof Biochemistry, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical, Patna 800007, India
| | - Roshan Kamal Topno
- Department of Epidemiology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna 800007, India
| | - Vnr Das
- Department of Clinical Medicine, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna 800007, India
| | - Krishna Pandey
- Department of Clinical Medicine, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna 800007, India
| | - Ganesh Chandra Sahoo
- Department of Bioinformatics, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna 800007, India
| | - Sanjiva Bimal
- Department of Immunology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna 800007, India
| | - Pradeep Das
- Department of Bioinformatics, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna 800007, India.,Department of Molecular Biology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna 800007, India
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Athanasiou E, Agallou M, Tastsoglou S, Kammona O, Hatzigeorgiou A, Kiparissides C, Karagouni E. A Poly(Lactic- co-Glycolic) Acid Nanovaccine Based on Chimeric Peptides from Different Leishmania infantum Proteins Induces Dendritic Cells Maturation and Promotes Peptide-Specific IFNγ-Producing CD8 + T Cells Essential for the Protection against Experimental Visceral Leishmaniasis. Front Immunol 2017; 8:684. [PMID: 28659922 PMCID: PMC5468442 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2017.00684] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2017] [Accepted: 05/26/2017] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Visceral leishmaniasis, caused by Leishmania (L.) donovani and L. infantum protozoan parasites, can provoke overwhelming and protracted epidemics, with high case-fatality rates. An effective vaccine against the disease must rely on the generation of a strong and long-lasting T cell immunity, mediated by CD4+ TH1 and CD8+ T cells. Multi-epitope peptide-based vaccine development is manifesting as the new era of vaccination strategies against Leishmania infection. In this study, we designed chimeric peptides containing HLA-restricted epitopes from three immunogenic L. infantum proteins (cysteine peptidase A, histone H1, and kinetoplastid membrane protein 11), in order to be encapsulated in poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid nanoparticles with or without the adjuvant monophosphoryl lipid A (MPLA) or surface modification with an octapeptide targeting the tumor necrosis factor receptor II. We aimed to construct differentially functionalized peptide-based nanovaccine candidates and investigate their capacity to stimulate the immunomodulatory properties of dendritic cells (DCs), which are critical regulators of adaptive immunity generated upon vaccination. According to our results, DCs stimulation with the peptide-based nanovaccine candidates with MPLA incorporation or surface modification induced an enhanced maturation profile with prominent IL-12 production, promoting allogeneic T cell proliferation and intracellular production of IFNγ by CD4+ and CD8+ T cell subsets. In addition, DCs stimulated with the peptide-based nanovaccine candidate with MPLA incorporation exhibited a robust transcriptional activation, characterized by upregulated genes indicative of vaccine-driven DCs differentiation toward type 1 phenotype. Immunization of HLA A2.1 transgenic mice with this peptide-based nanovaccine candidate induced peptide-specific IFNγ-producing CD8+ T cells and conferred significant protection against L. infantum infection. Concluding, our findings supported that encapsulation of more than one chimeric multi-epitope peptides from different immunogenic L. infantum proteins in a proper biocompatible delivery system with the right adjuvant is considered as an improved promising approach for the development of a vaccine against VL.
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Affiliation(s)
- Evita Athanasiou
- Laboratory of Cellular Immunology, Department of Microbiology, Hellenic Pasteur Institute, Athens, Greece
| | - Maria Agallou
- Laboratory of Cellular Immunology, Department of Microbiology, Hellenic Pasteur Institute, Athens, Greece
| | | | - Olga Kammona
- Laboratory of Polymer Reaction Engineering, Chemical Process and Energy Resources Institute, Centre for Research and Technology-Hellas, Thessaloniki, Greece
| | | | - Costas Kiparissides
- Laboratory of Polymer Reaction Engineering, Chemical Process and Energy Resources Institute, Centre for Research and Technology-Hellas, Thessaloniki, Greece.,Laboratory of Chemical Engineering B, Department of Chemical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
| | - Evdokia Karagouni
- Laboratory of Cellular Immunology, Department of Microbiology, Hellenic Pasteur Institute, Athens, Greece
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Chamakh-Ayari R, Chenik M, Chakroun AS, Bahi-Jaber N, Aoun K, Meddeb-Garnaoui A. Leishmania major large RAB GTPase is highly immunogenic in individuals immune to cutaneous and visceral leishmaniasis. Parasit Vectors 2017; 10:185. [PMID: 28416006 PMCID: PMC5393016 DOI: 10.1186/s13071-017-2127-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2016] [Accepted: 04/04/2017] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Background We previously identified a Leishmania (L.) major large RAB GTPase (LmlRAB), a new atypical RAB GTPase protein. It is highly conserved in Leishmania species while displaying low level of homology with mammalian homologues. Leishmania small RAB GTPases proteins have been involved in regulation of exocytic and endocytic pathways whereas the role of large RAB GTPases proteins has not been characterized yet. We report here the immunogenicity of both recombinant rLmlRAB and rLmlRABC, in individuals with immunity against L. major or L. infantum. Methods PBMC were isolated from individuals cured of L. major (CCLm) or from healthy individuals. The latter were subdivided into high or low IFN-γ responders. Healthy high IFN-γ responders, considered as asymptomatics, were living in an endemic area for L. major (HHRLm) or L. infantum (HHRLi). Healthy low IFN-γ responders (HLR) were considered as naïve controls. Cells from all volunteers were stimulated with rLmlRAB or rLmlRABC. Cytokines were analysed by CBA and ELISA and phenotypes of IFN-γ-producing cells were analysed by flow cytometry. Results Both rLmlRAB and rLmlRABC induced high significant levels of IFN-γ in CCLm, HHRLm and HHRLi groups. Phenotype analysis of rLmlRAB and rLmlRABC-stimulated T cells in CCLm individuals showed a significant increase in the percentage of specific IFN-γ-producing CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. rLmlRAB induced significant granzyme B levels in CCLm and HHRLm. Low but significant granzyme B levels were detected in naïve group. IL-10 was detected in immune and naïve individuals. Conclusion We showed that rLmlRAB protein and its divergent carboxy-terminal part induced a predominant Th1 response in individuals immune to L. major or L. infantum. Our results suggest that rLmlRAB and rLmlRABC proteins are potential cross-species vaccine candidates against cutaneous and visceral leishmaniasis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rym Chamakh-Ayari
- Laboratory of Medical Parasitology, Biotechnology and Biomolecules, LR11-IPT-06, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia.,University of Carthage, Tunis, Tunisia
| | - Mehdi Chenik
- Laboratory of Medical Parasitology, Biotechnology and Biomolecules, LR11-IPT-06, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
| | - Ahmed Sahbi Chakroun
- Molecular Epidemiology and Experimental Pathology Applied to Infectious Diseases Laboratory, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
| | | | - Karim Aoun
- Laboratory of Medical Parasitology, Biotechnology and Biomolecules, LR11-IPT-06, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
| | - Amel Meddeb-Garnaoui
- Laboratory of Medical Parasitology, Biotechnology and Biomolecules, LR11-IPT-06, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia.
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Synthetic Peptides as Potential Antigens for Cutaneous Leishmaniosis Diagnosis. J Immunol Res 2017; 2017:5871043. [PMID: 28367456 PMCID: PMC5359444 DOI: 10.1155/2017/5871043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2016] [Revised: 11/20/2016] [Accepted: 12/08/2016] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
This work's goal was to research new candidate antigens for cutaneous leishmaniosis (CL). In order to reach the goal, we used random peptide phage display libraries screened using antibodies from Leishmania braziliensis patients. After selection, three peptides (P1, P2, and P3) were synthesized using Fmoc chemistry. The peptides individually or a mixture of them (MIX) was subsequently emulsified in complete and incomplete Freund's adjuvant and injected subcutaneously in golden hamsters. Sera from the hamsters administered with P1 presented antibodies that recognized proteins between 76 and 150 kDa from L. braziliensis. Sera from hamsters which had peptides P2 and P3, as well as the MIX, administered presented antibodies that recognized proteins between 52 and 76 kDa of L. braziliensis. The research on the similarity of the peptides' sequences in protein databases showed that they match a 63 kDa glycoprotein. The three peptides and the MIX were recognized by the sera from CL patients by immunoassay approach (ELISA). The peptides' MIX showed the best performance (79% sensitivity) followed by the P1 (72% sensitivity), and the AS presented 91% sensitivity. These results show a new route for discovering molecules for diagnosis or for immunoprotection against leishmaniosis.
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31
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E Silva RDF, Ferreira LFGR, Hernandes MZ, de Brito MEF, de Oliveira BC, da Silva AA, de-Melo-Neto OP, Rezende AM, Pereira VRA. Combination of In Silico Methods in the Search for Potential CD4(+) and CD8(+) T Cell Epitopes in the Proteome of Leishmania braziliensis. Front Immunol 2016; 7:327. [PMID: 27621732 PMCID: PMC5002431 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2016.00327] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2016] [Accepted: 08/16/2016] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
The leishmaniases are neglected tropical diseases widespread throughout the globe, which are caused by protozoans from the genus Leishmania and are transmitted by infected phlebotomine flies. The development of a safe and effective vaccine against these diseases has been seen as the best alternative to control and reduce the number of cases. To support vaccine development, this work has applied an in silico approach to search for high potential peptide epitopes able to bind to different major histocompatibility complex Class I and Class II (MHC I and MHC II) molecules from different human populations. First, the predicted proteome of Leishmania braziliensis was compared and analyzed by modern linear programs to find epitopes with the capacity to trigger an immune response. This approach resulted in thousands of epitopes derived from 8,000 proteins conserved among different Leishmania species. Epitopes from proteins similar to those found in host species were excluded, and epitopes from proteins conserved between different Leishmania species and belonging to surface proteins were preferentially selected. The resulting epitopes were then clustered, to avoid redundancies, resulting in a total of 230 individual epitopes for MHC I and 2,319 for MHC II. These were used for molecular modeling and docking with MHC structures retrieved from the Protein Data Bank. Molecular docking then ranked epitopes based on their predicted binding affinity to both MHC I and II. Peptides corresponding to the top 10 ranked epitopes were synthesized and evaluated in vitro for their capacity to stimulate peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from post-treated cutaneous leishmaniasis patients, with PBMC from healthy donors used as control. From the 10 peptides tested, 50% showed to be immunogenic and capable to stimulate the proliferation of lymphocytes from recovered individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rafael de Freitas E Silva
- Department of Natural Sciences, Universidade de Pernambuco, Garanhuns, Pernambuco, Brazil; Department of Immunology, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil
| | | | - Marcelo Zaldini Hernandes
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco , Recife, Pernambuco , Brazil
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Mou Z, Li J, Boussoffara T, Kishi H, Hamana H, Ezzati P, Hu C, Yi W, Liu D, Khadem F, Okwor I, Jia P, Shitaoka K, Wang S, Ndao M, Petersen C, Chen J, Rafati S, Louzir H, Muraguchi A, Wilkins JA, Uzonna JE. Identification of broadly conserved cross-species protective Leishmania antigen and its responding CD4+ T cells. Sci Transl Med 2016; 7:310ra167. [PMID: 26491077 DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aac5477] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
There is currently no clinically effective vaccine against leishmaniasis because of poor understanding of the antigens that elicit dominant T cell immunity. Using proteomics and cellular immunology, we identified a dominant naturally processed peptide (PEPCK335-351) derived from Leishmania glycosomal phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK). PEPCK was conserved in all pathogenic Leishmania, expressed in glycosomes of promastigotes and amastigotes, and elicited strong CD4(+) T cell responses in infected mice and humans. I-A(b)-PEPCK335-351 tetramer identified protective Leishmania-specific CD4(+) T cells at a clonal level, which comprised ~20% of all Leishmania-reactive CD4(+) T cells at the peak of infection. PEPCK335-351-specific CD4(+) T cells were oligoclonal in their T cell receptor usage, produced polyfunctional cytokines (interleukin-2, interferon-γ, and tumor necrosis factor), and underwent expansion, effector activities, contraction, and stable maintenance after lesion resolution. Vaccination with PEPCK peptide, DNA expressing full-length PEPCK, or rPEPCK induced strong durable cross-species protection in both resistant and susceptible mice. The effectiveness and durability of protection in vaccinated mice support the development of a broadly cross-species protective vaccine against different forms of leishmaniasis by targeting PEPCK.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhirong Mou
- Department of Immunology, College of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 0T5, Canada
| | - Jintao Li
- Department of Immunology, College of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 0T5, Canada. Institute of Tropical Medicine, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China
| | - Thouraya Boussoffara
- Laboratory of Transmission, Control and Immunobiology of Infections, Pasteur Institute of Tunis, Tunis 1002, Tunisia
| | - Hiroyuki Kishi
- Department of Immunology, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan
| | - Hiroshi Hamana
- Department of Immunology, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan
| | - Peyman Ezzati
- Manitoba Centre for Proteomics and Systems Biology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Manitoba, Health Sciences Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3E 3P4, Canada
| | - Chuanmin Hu
- Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Laboratory Sciences, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China
| | - Weijing Yi
- Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Laboratory Sciences, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China
| | - Dong Liu
- Department of Immunology, College of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 0T5, Canada
| | - Forough Khadem
- Department of Immunology, College of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 0T5, Canada
| | - Ifeoma Okwor
- Department of Medical Microbiology, College of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3E 0J9, Canada
| | - Ping Jia
- Department of Immunology, College of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 0T5, Canada
| | - Kiyomi Shitaoka
- Department of Immunology, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan
| | - Shufeng Wang
- Department of Immunology, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China
| | - Momar Ndao
- National Reference Centre for Parasitology, Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3G 1A4, Canada
| | | | - Jianping Chen
- Department of Parasitology, West China School of Preclinical and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
| | - Sima Rafati
- Molecular Immunology and Vaccine Research Laboratory, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran 13164, Iran
| | - Hechmi Louzir
- Laboratory of Transmission, Control and Immunobiology of Infections, Pasteur Institute of Tunis, Tunis 1002, Tunisia
| | - Atsushi Muraguchi
- Department of Immunology, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan
| | - John A Wilkins
- Manitoba Centre for Proteomics and Systems Biology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Manitoba, Health Sciences Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3E 3P4, Canada
| | - Jude E Uzonna
- Department of Immunology, College of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 0T5, Canada. Department of Medical Microbiology, College of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3E 0J9, Canada.
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Seyed N, Taheri T, Rafati S. Post-Genomics and Vaccine Improvement for Leishmania. Front Microbiol 2016; 7:467. [PMID: 27092123 PMCID: PMC4822237 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2016.00467] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2015] [Accepted: 03/21/2016] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease that primarily affects Asia, Africa, South America, and the Mediterranean basin. Despite extensive efforts to develop an effective prophylactic vaccine, no promising vaccine is available yet. However, recent advancements in computational vaccinology on the one hand and genome sequencing approaches on the other have generated new hopes in vaccine development. Computational genome mining for new vaccine candidates is known as reverse vaccinology and is believed to further extend the current list of Leishmania vaccine candidates. Reverse vaccinology can also reduce the intrinsic risks associated with live attenuated vaccines. Individual epitopes arranged in tandem as polytopes are also a possible outcome of reverse genome mining. Here, we will briefly compare reverse vaccinology with conventional vaccinology in respect to Leishmania vaccine, and we will discuss how it influences the aforementioned topics. We will also introduce new in vivo models that will bridge the gap between human and laboratory animal models in future studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Negar Seyed
- Department of Immunotherapy and Leishmania Vaccine Research, Pasteur Institute of IranTehran, Iran
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Naouar I, Boussoffara T, Chenik M, Gritli S, Ben Ahmed M, Belhadj Hmida N, Bahi-Jaber N, Bardi R, Gorgi Y, Ben Salah A, Louzir H. Prediction of T Cell Epitopes from Leishmania major Potentially Excreted/Secreted Proteins Inducing Granzyme B Production. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0147076. [PMID: 26771180 PMCID: PMC4714855 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0147076] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2015] [Accepted: 12/27/2015] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Leishmania-specific cytotoxic T cell response is part of the acquired immune response developed against the parasite and contributes to resistance to reinfection. Herein, we have used an immune-informatic approach for the identification, among Leishmania major potentially excreted/secreted proteins previously described, those generating peptides that could be targeted by the cytotoxic immune response. Seventy-eight nonameric peptides that are predicted to be loaded by HLA-A*0201 molecule were generated and their binding capacity to HLA-A2 was evaluated. These peptides were grouped into 20 pools and their immunogenicity was evaluated by in vitro stimulation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from HLA-A2+-immune individuals with a history of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis. Six peptides were identified according to their ability to elicit production of granzyme B. Furthermore, among these peptides 3 showed highest affinity to HLA-A*0201, one derived from an elongation factor 1-alpha and two from an unknown protein. These proteins could constitute potential vaccine candidates against leishmaniasis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ikbel Naouar
- Laboratory of Transmission, Control, and Immunobiology of Infections-LR11IPT02, Pasteur Institute of Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
- University of Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia
| | - Thouraya Boussoffara
- Laboratory of Transmission, Control, and Immunobiology of Infections-LR11IPT02, Pasteur Institute of Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
- University of Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia
- * E-mail:
| | - Mehdi Chenik
- University of Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia
- Laboratory of Medical Parasitology, Biotechnology and Biomolecules, LR11-IPT-06, Pasteur Institute of Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
| | - Sami Gritli
- Department of Pathology, Charles Nicolle Hospital and Faculty of Medicine of Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
| | - Melika Ben Ahmed
- Laboratory of Transmission, Control, and Immunobiology of Infections-LR11IPT02, Pasteur Institute of Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
- University of Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia
| | - Nabil Belhadj Hmida
- Laboratory of Transmission, Control, and Immunobiology of Infections-LR11IPT02, Pasteur Institute of Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
- University of Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia
| | - Narges Bahi-Jaber
- Laboratory of Transmission, Control, and Immunobiology of Infections-LR11IPT02, Pasteur Institute of Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
- UPSP EGEAL Institut Polytechnique LaSalle Beauvais, Beauvais, France
| | - Rafika Bardi
- Laboratory of Immunology, Charles Nicolle Hospital, Tunis, Tunisia
| | - Yousr Gorgi
- Laboratory of Immunology, Charles Nicolle Hospital, Tunis, Tunisia
| | - Afif Ben Salah
- Laboratory of Transmission, Control, and Immunobiology of Infections-LR11IPT02, Pasteur Institute of Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
- University of Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia
| | - Hechmi Louzir
- Laboratory of Transmission, Control, and Immunobiology of Infections-LR11IPT02, Pasteur Institute of Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
- University of Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia
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GHASEMI NEJAD ALMANI P, SHARIFI I, KAZEMI B, BABAEI Z, BANDEHPOUR M, SALARI S, SAEDI DEZAKI E. Designing and Cloning Molecular Constructs to Knock Out N-Acetylglucosamine Phosphatidylinositol De-N-Acetylase (GPI12) Gene in Leishmania major (MRHO/IR/75/ER). IRANIAN JOURNAL OF PARASITOLOGY 2016; 11:448-462. [PMID: 28127356 PMCID: PMC5251173] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Leishmaniasis represents a major public health concern in tropical and sub-tropical countries. At present, there is no efficacious vaccine against the disease and new control methods are needed. One way to access this important goal is to knock out genes of specific macromolecules to evaluate the effect of deletion on the growth, multiplication, pathogenesis and immunity of the parasite. The aim of this study was to design and clone molecular constructs to knock out N-acetylglucosamine phosphatidylinositol de-N-acetylase (GPI12) gene in Leishmania major. METHODS For designing and making molecular constructs, we used pLEXSY-neo2 and pLEXSY-hyg2 vectors. The molecular constructs were cloned in E. coli strain Top10. The molecular constructs were transfected by electroporation into L. major in two stages. RESULTS The molecular constructs were confirmed by Colony PCR and sequencing. The recombinant strains were isolated by selective antibiotics, after which they were confirmed by PCR, Southern and Western blots. CONCLUSION Recombinant parasites were created and examined for subsequent study. With the use of molecular constructs, it was possible to remove and study gene GPI12 and to achieve a live recombinant Leishmania parasite that maintained the original form of the antigenic parasites. This achievement can be used as an experimental model for vaccine development studies. Further investigations are essential to check this model in a suitable host.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Iraj SHARIFI
- Leishmaniasis Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran,Correspondence ,
| | - Bahram KAZEMI
- Cellular and Molecular Biology Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, Biotechnology Dept., School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran,Correspondence ,
| | - Zahra BABAEI
- Leishmaniasis Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
| | - Mojgan BANDEHPOUR
- Cellular and Molecular Biology Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, Biotechnology Dept., School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Samira SALARI
- Research Center for Tropical and Infectious Diseases, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
| | - Ebrahim SAEDI DEZAKI
- Leishmaniasis Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
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Genome-Wide Prediction of Vaccine Candidates for Leishmania major: An Integrated Approach. J Trop Med 2015; 2015:709216. [PMID: 26681959 PMCID: PMC4670862 DOI: 10.1155/2015/709216] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2015] [Revised: 10/30/2015] [Accepted: 11/02/2015] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Despite the wealth of information regarding genetics of the causative parasite and experimental immunology of the cutaneous leishmaniasis, there is currently no licensed vaccine against it. In the current study, a two-level data mining strategy was employed, to screen the Leishmania major genome for promising vaccine candidates. First, we screened a set of 25 potential antigens from 8312 protein coding sequences, based on presence of signal peptides, GPI anchors, and consensus antigenicity predictions. Second, we conducted a comprehensive immunogenic analysis of the 25 antigens based on epitopes predicted by NetCTL tool. Interestingly, results revealed that candidate antigen number 1 (LmjF.03.0550) had greater number of potential T cell epitopes, as compared to five well-characterized control antigens (CSP-Plasmodium falciparum, M1 and NP-Influenza A virus, core protein-Hepatitis B virus, and PSTA1-Mycobacterium tuberculosis). In order to determine an optimal set of epitopes among the highest scoring predicted epitopes, the OptiTope tool was employed for populations susceptible to cutaneous leishmaniasis. The epitope (127SLWSLLAGV) from antigen number 1, found to bind with the most prevalent allele HLA-A⁎0201 (25% frequency in Southwest Asia), was predicted as most immunogenic for all the target populations. Thus, our study reasserts the potential of genome-wide screening of pathogen antigens and epitopes, for identification of promising vaccine candidates.
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Dikhit MR, Kumar S, Vijaymahantesh, Sahoo BR, Mansuri R, Amit A, Yousuf Ansari M, Sahoo GC, Bimal S, Das P. Computational elucidation of potential antigenic CTL epitopes in Ebola virus. INFECTION GENETICS AND EVOLUTION 2015; 36:369-375. [PMID: 26462623 DOI: 10.1016/j.meegid.2015.10.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2015] [Revised: 09/02/2015] [Accepted: 10/09/2015] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Cell-mediated immunity is important for the control of Ebola virus infection. We hypothesized that those HLA A0201 and HLA B40 restricted epitopes derived from Ebola virus proteins, would mount a good antigenic response. Here we employed an immunoinformatics approach to identify specific 9mer amino acid which may be capable of inducing a robust cell-mediated immune response in humans. We identified a set of 28 epitopes that had no homologs in humans. Specifically, the epitopes derived from NP, RdRp, GP and VP40 share population coverage of 93.40%, 84.15%, 74.94% and 77.12%, respectively. Based on the other HLA binding specificity and population coverage, seven novel promiscuous epitopes were identified. These 7 promiscuous epitopes from NP, RdRp and GP were found to have world-wide population coverage of more than 95% indicating their potential significance as useful candidates for vaccine design. Epitope conservancy analysis also suggested that most of the peptides are highly conserved (100%) in other virulent Ebola strain (Mayinga-76, Kikwit-95 and Makona-G3816- 2014) and can therefore be further investigated for their immunological relevance and usefulness as vaccine candidates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manas R Dikhit
- Department of Bioinformatics, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna 800007, India
| | - Santosh Kumar
- Department of Biotechnology and Department of Pharmacoinformatics, National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Hajipur 844102, India
| | - Vijaymahantesh
- Department of Biotechnology and Department of Pharmacoinformatics, National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Hajipur 844102, India; Division of Immunology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna 800007, India
| | - Bikash R Sahoo
- Institute for Protein Research, Osaka University, Suita 5650871, Japan
| | - Rani Mansuri
- Department of Bioinformatics, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna 800007, India; Department of Biotechnology and Department of Pharmacoinformatics, National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Hajipur 844102, India
| | - Ajay Amit
- Division of Immunology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna 800007, India
| | - Md Yousuf Ansari
- Department of Bioinformatics, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna 800007, India; Department of Biotechnology and Department of Pharmacoinformatics, National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Hajipur 844102, India
| | - Ganesh C Sahoo
- Department of Bioinformatics, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna 800007, India
| | - Sanjiva Bimal
- Division of Immunology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna 800007, India
| | - Pradeep Das
- Dept. of Molecular Parasitology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna 800007, India.
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Lohia N, Baranwal M. Identification of Conserved Peptides Comprising Multiple T Cell Epitopes of Matrix 1 Protein in H1N1 Influenza Virus. Viral Immunol 2015; 28:570-9. [PMID: 26398199 DOI: 10.1089/vim.2015.0060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Cell mediated immune response plays a key role in combating viral infection and thus identification of new vaccine targets manifesting T cell mediated response may serve as an ideal approach for influenza vaccine. The present study involves the application of an immunoinformatics-based consensus approach for epitope prediction (three epitope prediction tools each for CD4+ and CD8+ T cell epitopes) and molecular docking to identify peptide sequences containing T cell epitopes using the conserved sequences from all the Matrix 1 protein sequences of H1N1 virus available until April 2015. Three peptides comprising CD4+ and CD8+ T cell epitopes were obtained, which were not exactly reported in earlier studies. Population coverage study of these multi-epitope peptides revealed that they are capable of inducing a potent immune response belonging to individuals from different populations and ethnicity distributed around the globe. Conservation study with other subtypes of influenza virus infecting humans (H2N2, H5N1, H7N9, and H3N2) revealed that these three peptides were conserved (>90%), with 100% identity in most of these strains. Hence, these peptides can impart immunity against H1N1 as well as other subtypes of influenza virus. A molecular docking study of the predicted peptides with class I and II human leukocyte antigen (HLA) molecules has shown that the majority of them have comparable binding energies to that of native peptides. Hence, these peptides from Matrix 1 protein of H1N1 appear to be promising candidates for universal vaccine design.
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Affiliation(s)
- Neha Lohia
- Department of Biotechnology, Thapar University , Patiala, India
| | - Manoj Baranwal
- Department of Biotechnology, Thapar University , Patiala, India
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Hosseini M, Haji Fatahaliha M, Aghebati-Maleki L, Movassagh Pour A, Rafati S, Seifi-Najmi M, Younesi V, Jadidi-Niaragh F, Yousefi M. Recombinant Leishmania major lipophosphoglycan 3 activates human T-lymphocytes via TLR2-independent pathway. J Immunotoxicol 2015; 13:263-9. [PMID: 26181511 DOI: 10.3109/1547691x.2015.1066906] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Leishmaniasis is one of the most common infectious diseases transmitted by an obligate intracellular genus Leishmania. As there is no efficient vaccination strategy for leishmaniasis, new immunostimulatory components may enhance protective immune responses against this parasite. Lipophosphoglycan 3 (LPG3) is an essential protein required for LPG assembling. In this study, the ability of recombinant LPG3 (rLPG) and its fragments to activate isolated healthy human T-cells and cytokine secretion was evaluated in vitro. The results showed that rLPG3 and its N-terminal fragment (rNT-LPG3) enhanced expression of CD69 on the surface of T-cells and promoted differentiation of CD4(+) T-lymphocytes toward a T-helper 1 (T(H)1) phenotype, in part, through up-regulation of interferon (IFN)-γ expression in a TLR2-independent manner. These results indicated the protective effects of LPG3 (particularly NT-LPG3 fragment) as a potent immunostimulatory component of leishmania in vaccination against leishmaniasis. Further investigations in in vivo assays are clearly warranted.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maryam Hosseini
- a Drug Applied Research Center .,b Immunology Research Center , and.,c Department of Immunology , Tabriz University of Medical Sciences , Tabriz , Iran
| | - Mostafa Haji Fatahaliha
- a Drug Applied Research Center .,b Immunology Research Center , and.,c Department of Immunology , Tabriz University of Medical Sciences , Tabriz , Iran
| | - Leili Aghebati-Maleki
- b Immunology Research Center , and.,c Department of Immunology , Tabriz University of Medical Sciences , Tabriz , Iran
| | - Aliakbar Movassagh Pour
- b Immunology Research Center , and.,c Department of Immunology , Tabriz University of Medical Sciences , Tabriz , Iran
| | - Sima Rafati
- d Molecular Immunology and Vaccine Research Lab, Pasteur Institute of Iran , Tehran , and
| | - Mehrnush Seifi-Najmi
- b Immunology Research Center , and.,c Department of Immunology , Tabriz University of Medical Sciences , Tabriz , Iran
| | - Vahid Younesi
- e Department of Immunology , School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences , Tehran , Iran
| | - Farhad Jadidi-Niaragh
- e Department of Immunology , School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences , Tehran , Iran
| | - Mehdi Yousefi
- b Immunology Research Center , and.,c Department of Immunology , Tabriz University of Medical Sciences , Tabriz , Iran
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Duarte A, Queiroz ATL, Tosta R, Carvalho AM, Barbosa CH, Bellio M, de Oliveira CI, Barral-Netto M. Prediction of CD8+ Epitopes in Leishmania braziliensis Proteins Using EPIBOT: In Silico Search and In Vivo Validation. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0124786. [PMID: 25905908 PMCID: PMC4407964 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0124786] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2014] [Accepted: 03/05/2015] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Leishmaniasis is caused by intracellular Leishmania parasites that induce a T-cell mediated response associated with recognition of CD4+ and CD8+ T cell Line 1Lineepitopes. Identification of CD8+ antigenic determinants is crucial for vaccine and therapy development. Herein, we developed an open-source software dedicated to search and compile data obtained from currently available on line prediction algorithms. Methodology/Principal Findings We developed a two-phase algorithm and implemented in an open source software called EPIBOT, that consolidates the results obtained with single prediction algorithms, generating a final output in which epitopes are ranked. EPIBOT was initially trained using a set of 831 known epitopes from 397 proteins from IEDB. We then screened 63 Leishmania braziliensis vaccine candidates with the EPIBOT trained tool to search for CD8+ T cell epitopes. A proof-of-concept experiment was conducted with the top eight CD8+ epitopes, elected by EPIBOT. To do this, the elected peptides were synthesized and validated for their in vivo cytotoxicity. Among the tested epitopes, three were able to induce lysis of pulsed-target cells. Conclusion Our results show that EPIBOT can successfully search across existing prediction tools, generating a compiled list of candidate CD8+ epitopes. This software is fast and a simple search engine that can be customized to search over different MHC alleles or HLA haplotypes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Angelo Duarte
- Departmento de Tecnologia, Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Av. Transnordestina, s/n, DTEC-Módulo 3, 44036–900, Feira de Santana, BA, Brazil
| | | | - Rafael Tosta
- Departmento de Tecnologia, Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Av. Transnordestina, s/n, DTEC-Módulo 3, 44036–900, Feira de Santana, BA, Brazil
| | | | - Carlos Henrique Barbosa
- Instituto de Microbiologia Paulo de Góes, Centro de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Avenida Carlos Chagas Filho, 373 Bloco D, sala 35, Cidade Universitária, 21941–902, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
| | - Maria Bellio
- Instituto de Microbiologia Paulo de Góes, Centro de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Avenida Carlos Chagas Filho, 373 Bloco D, sala 35, Cidade Universitária, 21941–902, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
| | - Camila I. de Oliveira
- CPqGM—FIOCRUZ, R. Waldemar Falcão, 121, 40296–710, Salvador, BA, Brazil
- Instituto de Investigação em Imunologia, São Paulo, Brazil
- * E-mail: (CIO); (MBN)
| | - Manoel Barral-Netto
- CPqGM—FIOCRUZ, R. Waldemar Falcão, 121, 40296–710, Salvador, BA, Brazil
- Instituto de Investigação em Imunologia, São Paulo, Brazil
- * E-mail: (CIO); (MBN)
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Carrillo-Vazquez JP, Correa-Basurto J, García-Machorro J, Campos-Rodríguez R, Moreau V, Rosas-Trigueros JL, Reyes-López CA, Rojas-López M, Zamorano-Carrillo A. A continuous peptide epitope reacting with pandemic influenza AH1N1 predicted by bioinformatic approaches. J Mol Recognit 2015; 28:553-64. [DOI: 10.1002/jmr.2470] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2014] [Revised: 12/16/2014] [Accepted: 01/15/2015] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Affiliation(s)
| | - José Correa-Basurto
- Laboratorio de Modelado Molecular y Diseño de Fármacos; Escuela Superior de Medicina-IPN; Mexico, D.F. Mexico
| | - Jazmin García-Machorro
- Laboratorio de Medicina de Conservación; Escuela Superior de Medicina-IPN; Mexico, D.F. Mexico
| | | | | | - Jorge L. Rosas-Trigueros
- Laboratorio Transdisciplinario de Investigación en Sistemas Evolutivos SEPI-ESCOM-IPN; Mexico, D.F. Mexico
| | - Cesar A. Reyes-López
- Laboratorio de Bioquímica y Biofísica Computacional; Doctorado en Biotecnología ENMH-IPN; Mexico, D.F. Mexico
| | | | - Absalom Zamorano-Carrillo
- Laboratorio de Bioquímica y Biofísica Computacional; Doctorado en Biotecnología ENMH-IPN; Mexico, D.F. Mexico
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Seyed N, Taheri T, Vauchy C, Dosset M, Godet Y, Eslamifar A, Sharifi I, Adotevi O, Borg C, Rohrlich PS, Rafati S. Immunogenicity evaluation of a rationally designed polytope construct encoding HLA-A*0201 restricted epitopes derived from Leishmania major related proteins in HLA-A2/DR1 transgenic mice: steps toward polytope vaccine. PLoS One 2014; 9:e108848. [PMID: 25310094 PMCID: PMC4195657 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0108848] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2014] [Accepted: 08/22/2014] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Background There are several reports demonstrating the role of CD8 T cells against Leishmania species. Therefore peptide vaccine might represent an effective approach to control the infection. We developed a rational polytope-DNA construct encoding immunogenic HLA-A2 restricted peptides and validated the processing and presentation of encoded epitopes in a preclinical mouse model humanized for the MHC-class-I and II. Methods and Findings HLA-A*0201 restricted epitopes from LPG-3, LmSTI-1, CPB and CPC along with H-2Kd restricted peptides, were lined-up together as a polytope string in a DNA construct. Polytope string was rationally designed by harnessing advantages of ubiquitin, spacers and HLA-DR restricted Th1 epitope. Endotoxin free pcDNA plasmid expressing the polytope was inoculated into humanized HLA-DRB1*0101/HLA-A*0201 transgenic mice intramuscularly 4 days after Cardiotoxin priming followed by 2 boosters at one week interval. Mice were sacrificed 10 days after the last booster, and splenocytes were subjected to ex-vivo and in-vitro evaluation of specific IFN-γ production and in-vitro cytotoxicity against individual peptides by ELISpot and standard chromium-51(51Cr) release assay respectively. 4 H-2Kd and 5 HLA-A*0201 restricted peptides were able to induce specific CD8 T cell responses in BALB/C and HLA-A2/DR1 mice respectively. IFN-γ and cytolytic activity together discriminated LPG-3-P1 as dominant, LmSTI-1-P3 and LmSTI-1-P6 as subdominant with both cytolytic activity and IFN-γ production, LmSTI-1-P4 and LPG-3-P5 as subdominant with only IFN-γ production potential. Conclusions Here we described a new DNA-polytope construct for Leishmania vaccination encompassing immunogenic HLA-A2 restricted peptides. Immunogenicity evaluation in HLA-transgenic model confirmed CD8 T cell induction with expected affinities and avidities showing almost efficient processing and presentation of the peptides in relevant preclinical model. Further evaluation will determine the efficacy of this polytope construct protecting against infectious challenge of Leishmania. Fortunately HLA transgenic mice are promising preclinical models helping to speed up immunogenicity analysis in a human related mouse model.
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Affiliation(s)
- Negar Seyed
- Molecular Immunology and Vaccine Research Lab, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Tahereh Taheri
- Molecular Immunology and Vaccine Research Lab, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Charline Vauchy
- INSERM U1098, Unité Mixte de Recherche, Besançon, France
- Etablissement Français du Sang de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
- Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
| | - Magalie Dosset
- INSERM U1098, Unité Mixte de Recherche, Besançon, France
- Etablissement Français du Sang de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
- Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
| | - Yann Godet
- INSERM U1098, Unité Mixte de Recherche, Besançon, France
- Etablissement Français du Sang de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
- Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
| | - Ali Eslamifar
- Department of Electron Microscopy and Clinical Research, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Iraj Sharifi
- School of Medicine, Leishmaniasis Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
| | - Olivier Adotevi
- INSERM U1098, Unité Mixte de Recherche, Besançon, France
- Etablissement Français du Sang de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
- Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
- CHRU de Besançon, Service d′Oncologie, Besançon, France
| | - Christophe Borg
- INSERM U1098, Unité Mixte de Recherche, Besançon, France
- Etablissement Français du Sang de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
- Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
- CHRU de Besançon, Service d′Oncologie, Besançon, France
| | - Pierre Simon Rohrlich
- INSERM U1098, Unité Mixte de Recherche, Besançon, France
- Etablissement Français du Sang de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
- Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
- CHRU de Besançon, Service de pédiatrie, Besançon, France
| | - Sima Rafati
- Molecular Immunology and Vaccine Research Lab, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
- * E-mail:
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Joshi S, Rawat K, Yadav NK, Kumar V, Siddiqi MI, Dube A. Visceral Leishmaniasis: Advancements in Vaccine Development via Classical and Molecular Approaches. Front Immunol 2014; 5:380. [PMID: 25202307 PMCID: PMC4141159 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2014.00380] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2014] [Accepted: 07/24/2014] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) or kala-azar, a vector-borne protozoan disease, shows endemicity in larger areas of the tropical, subtropical and the Mediterranean countries. WHO report suggested that an annual incidence of VL is nearly 200,000 to 400,000 cases, resulting in 20,000 to 30,000 deaths per year. Treatment with available anti-leishmanial drugs are not cost effective, with varied efficacies and higher relapse rate, which poses a major challenge to current kala-azar control program in Indian subcontinent. Therefore, a vaccine against VL is imperative and knowing the fact that recovered individuals developed lifelong immunity against re-infection, it is feasible. Vaccine development program, though time taking, has recently gained momentum with the emergence of omic era, i.e., from genomics to immunomics. Classical as well as molecular methodologies have been overtaken with alternative strategies wherein proteomics based knowledge combined with computational techniques (immunoinformatics) speed up the identification and detailed characterization of new antigens for potential vaccine candidates. This may eventually help in the designing of polyvalent synthetic and recombinant chimeric vaccines as an effective intervention measures to control the disease in endemic areas. This review focuses on such newer approaches being utilized for vaccine development against VL.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sumit Joshi
- Division of Parasitology, Central Drug Research Institute , Lucknow , India
| | - Keerti Rawat
- Division of Parasitology, Central Drug Research Institute , Lucknow , India
| | | | - Vikash Kumar
- Division of Molecular and Structural Biology, Central Drug Research Institute , Lucknow , India
| | - Mohammad Imran Siddiqi
- Division of Molecular and Structural Biology, Central Drug Research Institute , Lucknow , India
| | - Anuradha Dube
- Division of Parasitology, Central Drug Research Institute , Lucknow , India
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Agallou M, Athanasiou E, Koutsoni O, Dotsika E, Karagouni E. Experimental Validation of Multi-Epitope Peptides Including Promising MHC Class I- and II-Restricted Epitopes of Four Known Leishmania infantum Proteins. Front Immunol 2014; 5:268. [PMID: 24959167 PMCID: PMC4051127 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2014.00268] [Citation(s) in RCA: 64] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/05/2014] [Accepted: 05/25/2014] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Leishmaniasis is a significant worldwide health problem for which no vaccine exists. Activation of CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells is crucial for the generation of protective immunity against parasite. Recent trend in vaccine design has been shifted to epitope-based vaccines that are more specific, safe, and easy to produce. In the present study, four known antigenic Leishmania infantum proteins, cysteine peptidase A (CPA), histone H1, KMP-11, and Leishmania eukaryotic initiation factor (LeIF) were analyzed for the prediction of binding epitopes to H2(d) MHC class I and II molecules, using online available algorithms. Based on in silico analysis, eight peptides including highly scored MHC class I- and II-restricted epitopes were synthesized. Peptide immunogenicity was validated in MHC compatible BALB/c mice immunized with each synthetic peptide emulsified in complete Freund's adjuvant/incomplete Freund's adjuvant. CPA_p2, CPA_p3, H1_p1, and LeIF_p6 induced strong spleen cell proliferation upon in vitro peptide re-stimulation. In addition, the majority of the peptides, except of LeIF_p1 and KMP-11_p1, induced IFN-γ secretion, while KMP-11_p1 indicated a suppressive effect on IL-10 production. CPA_p2, CPA_p3, LeIF_p3, and LeIF_p6 induced IFN-γ-producing CD4(+) T cells indicating a TH1-type response. In addition, CPA_p2, CPA_p3, and H1_p1 induced also the induction of CD8(+) T cells. The induction of peptide-specific IgG in immunized mice designated also the existence of B cell epitopes in peptide sequences. Combining immunoinformatic tools and experimental validation, we demonstrated that CPA_p2, CPA_p3, H1_p1, H1_p3, CPA_p2, LeIF_p3, and LeIF_p6 are likely to include potential epitopes for the induction of protective cytotoxic and/or TH1-type immune responses supporting the feasibility of peptide-based vaccine development for leishmaniasis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Agallou
- Laboratory of Cellular Immunology, Department of Microbiology, Hellenic Pasteur Institute , Athens , Greece
| | - Evita Athanasiou
- Laboratory of Cellular Immunology, Department of Microbiology, Hellenic Pasteur Institute , Athens , Greece
| | - Olga Koutsoni
- Laboratory of Cellular Immunology, Department of Microbiology, Hellenic Pasteur Institute , Athens , Greece
| | - Eleni Dotsika
- Laboratory of Cellular Immunology, Department of Microbiology, Hellenic Pasteur Institute , Athens , Greece
| | - Evdokia Karagouni
- Laboratory of Cellular Immunology, Department of Microbiology, Hellenic Pasteur Institute , Athens , Greece
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45
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Rafati S, Modabber F. Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Middle East and North Africa. NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES 2014. [DOI: 10.1007/978-3-7091-1613-5_5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
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46
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Castelli M, Cappelletti F, Diotti RA, Sautto G, Criscuolo E, Dal Peraro M, Clementi N. Peptide-based vaccinology: experimental and computational approaches to target hypervariable viruses through the fine characterization of protective epitopes recognized by monoclonal antibodies and the identification of T-cell-activating peptides. Clin Dev Immunol 2013; 2013:521231. [PMID: 23878584 PMCID: PMC3710646 DOI: 10.1155/2013/521231] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2013] [Accepted: 06/06/2013] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Defining immunogenic domains of viral proteins capable of eliciting a protective immune response is crucial in the development of novel epitope-based prophylactic strategies. This is particularly important for the selective targeting of conserved regions shared among hypervariable viruses. Studying postinfection and postimmunization sera, as well as cloning and characterization of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), still represents the best approach to identify protective epitopes. In particular, a protective mAb directed against conserved regions can play a key role in immunogen design and in human therapy as well. Experimental approaches aiming to characterize protective mAb epitopes or to identify T-cell-activating peptides are often burdened by technical limitations and can require long time to be correctly addressed. Thus, in the last decade many epitope predictive algorithms have been developed. These algorithms are continually evolving, and their use to address the empirical research is widely increasing. Here, we review several strategies based on experimental techniques alone or addressed by in silico analysis that are frequently used to predict immunogens to be included in novel epitope-based vaccine approaches. We will list the main strategies aiming to design a new vaccine preparation conferring the protection of a neutralizing mAb combined with an effective cell-mediated response.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matteo Castelli
- Microbiology and Virology Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, 20132 Milan, Italy
| | - Francesca Cappelletti
- Microbiology and Virology Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, 20132 Milan, Italy
| | - Roberta Antonia Diotti
- Microbiology and Virology Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, 20132 Milan, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Sautto
- Microbiology and Virology Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, 20132 Milan, Italy
| | - Elena Criscuolo
- Microbiology and Virology Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, 20132 Milan, Italy
| | - Matteo Dal Peraro
- Laboratory for Biomolecular Modeling, Institute of Bioingeneering, School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Nicola Clementi
- Microbiology and Virology Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, 20132 Milan, Italy
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Hecht L, Dormer A. The evolutionary significance of certain amino acid substitutions and their consequences for HIV-1 immunogenicity toward HLA's A*0201 and B*27. Bioinformation 2013; 9:315-20. [PMID: 23745018 PMCID: PMC3607191 DOI: 10.6026/97320630009315] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/01/2013] [Accepted: 01/29/2013] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
In silico tools are employed to examine the evolutionary relationship to possible vaccine peptide candidates' development. This perspective sheds light on the proteomic changes affecting the creation of HLA specific T-cell stimulating peptide vaccines for HIV. Full-length sequences of the envelope protein of the HIV subtypes A, B, C and D were obtained through the NCBI Protein database were aligned using CLUSTALW. They were then analyzed using RANKPEP specific to Human Leukocyte Antigen A*02 and B*27. Geneious was used to catalogue the collected gp160 sequences and to construct a phylogenic tree. Mesquite was employed for ancestral state reconstruction to infer the order of amino acid substitutions in the epitopes examined. The results showed that consensus peptide identified SLAEKNITI had changes that indicated predicted escape mutation in strains of HIV responding to pressure exerted by CD8+ cells expressing HLA A*02. The predominating 9-mers IRIGPGQAF of gp120 are significantly less immunogenic toward HLA B*27 than to HLA A*02. The data confirms previous findings on the importance for efficacious binding, of an arginine residue at the 2(nd) position of the gag SL9 epitope, and extends this principle to other epitopes which interacts with HLA B*27. This study shows that the understanding of viral evolution relating T-cell peptide vaccine design is a development that has much relevance for the creation of personalized therapeutics for HIV treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luke Hecht
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology, The University of Edinburgh, Kings Buildings, Ashworth Laboratories, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JT
| | - Anton Dormer
- Washington Adventist University, Department of Biology, 7600 Flower Avenue Takoma Park, Maryland 20721
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48
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Bae J, Song W, Smith R, Daley J, Tai YT, Anderson KC, Munshi NC. A novel immunogenic CS1-specific peptide inducing antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes targeting multiple myeloma. Br J Haematol 2012; 157:687-701. [PMID: 22533610 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2141.2012.09111.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2012] [Accepted: 02/15/2012] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
The CS1 antigen provides a unique target for the development of an immunotherapeutic strategy to treat patients with multiple myeloma (MM). This study aimed to identify HLA-A2(+) immunogenic peptides from the CS1 antigen, which induce peptide-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) against HLA-A2(+) MM cells. We identified a novel immunogenic HLA-A2-specific CS1(239-247) (SLFVLGLFL) peptide, which induced CS1-specific CTL (CS1-CTL) to MM cells. The CS1-CTL showed a distinct phenotype, with an increased percentage of effector memory and activated CTL and a decreased percentage of naïve CTL. CS1(239-247) peptide-specific CD8(+) T cells were detected by DimerX analyses and demonstrated functional activities specific to the peptide. The CTL displayed HLA-A2-restricted and antigen-specific cytotoxicity, proliferation, degranulation and γ-interferon (IFN-γ) production against both primary MM cells and MM cell lines. In addition, the effector memory cells subset (CD45RO(+) CCR7(-) /CD3(+) CD8(+) ) within CS1-CTL showed a higher level of CD107a degranulation and IFN-γ production as compared to effector cells (CD45RO(-) CCR7(-) /CD3(+) CD8(+) ) against HLA-A2(+) primary MM cells or MM cell lines. In conclusion, this study introduced a novel immunogenic HLA-A2-specific CS1(239-247) peptide capable of inducing antigen-specific CTL against MM cells that will provide a framework for its application as a novel MM immunotherapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jooeun Bae
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115, USA
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Rai J, Lok KI, Mok CY, Mann H, Noor M, Patel P, Flower DR. Immunoinformatic evaluation of multiple epitope ensembles as vaccine candidates: E coli 536. Bioinformation 2012; 8:272-5. [PMID: 22493535 PMCID: PMC3321237 DOI: 10.6026/97320630008272] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2012] [Accepted: 03/28/2012] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Epitope prediction is becoming a key tool for vaccine discovery. Prospective analysis of bacterial and viral genomes can identify antigenic epitopes encoded within individual genes that may act as effective vaccines against specific pathogens. Since B-cell epitope prediction remains unreliable, we concentrate on T-cell epitopes, peptides which bind with high affinity to Major Histacompatibility Complexes (MHC). In this report, we evaluate the veracity of identified T-cell epitope ensembles, as generated by a cascade of predictive algorithms (SignalP, Vaxijen, MHCPred, IDEB, EpiJen), as a candidate vaccine against the model pathogen uropathogenic gram negative bacteria Escherichia coli (E-coli) strain 536 (O6:K15:H31). An immunoinformatic approach was used to identify 23 epitopes within the E-coli proteome. These epitopes constitute the most promiscuous antigenic sequences that bind across more than one HLA allele with high affinity (IC50 < 50nM). The reliability of software programmes used, polymorphic nature of genes encoding MHC and what this means for population coverage of this potential vaccine are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jade Rai
- Aston Pharmacy School, Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK
| | - Ka In Lok
- Aston Pharmacy School, Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK
| | - Chun Yin Mok
- Aston Pharmacy School, Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK
| | - Harvinder Mann
- Aston Pharmacy School, Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK
| | - Mohammed Noor
- Aston Pharmacy School, Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK
| | - Pritesh Patel
- Aston Pharmacy School, Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK
| | - Darren R Flower
- Aston Pharmacy School, Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK
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50
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Stäger S, Rafati S. CD8(+) T cells in leishmania infections: friends or foes? Front Immunol 2012; 3:5. [PMID: 22566891 PMCID: PMC3342007 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2012.00005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 63] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2011] [Accepted: 01/09/2012] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Host protection against several intracellular pathogens requires the induction of CD8+ T cell responses. CD8+ T cells are potent effector cells that can produce high amounts of pro-inflammatory cytokines and kill infected target cells efficiently. However, a protective role for CD8+ T cells during Leishmania infections is still controversial and largely depends on the infection model. In this review, we discuss the role of CD8+ T cells during various types of Leishmania infections, following vaccination, and as potential immunotherapeutic targets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simona Stäger
- Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut Armand Frappier, Université du Québec Laval, QC, Canada
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