Immunoinformatic design of a putative multi-epitope vaccine candidate against Trypanosoma brucei gambiense

Ammar Usman Danazumi; Salahuddin Iliyasu Gital; Salisu Idris; Lamin Bs Dibba; Emmanuel Oluwadare Balogun; Maria Wiktoria Górna

doi:10.1016/j.csbj.2022.10.002

Immunoinformatic design of a putative multi-epitope vaccine candidate against Trypanosoma brucei gambiense

Comput Struct Biotechnol J. 2022 Oct 7:20:5574-5585. doi: 10.1016/j.csbj.2022.10.002. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Ammar Usman Danazumi^{1

2

3}, Salahuddin Iliyasu Gital⁴, Salisu Idris^{4

5}, Lamin Bs Dibba^{6

7}, Emmanuel Oluwadare Balogun^{4

6

8

9}, Maria Wiktoria Górna¹

Affiliations

¹ Biological and Chemical Research Centre, Department of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
² Faculty of Chemistry, Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland.
³ Groningen Research Institute of Pharmacy, University of Groningen, the Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Biochemistry, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria.
⁵ Department of Medical Laboratory Science, Kazaure School of Health Technology, Jigawa, Nigeria.
⁶ Africa Centre of Excellence for Neglected Tropical Diseases and Forensic Biotechnology, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria.
⁷ Department of Physical and Natural Sciences, School of Arts and Sciences, University of the Gambia, Brikama Campus. P.O Box 3530, Serrekunda, the Gambia.
⁸ Center for Discovery and Innovation in Parasitic Diseases, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
⁹ Department of Biomedical Chemistry, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.

Abstract

Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) is a neglected tropical disease that is caused by flagellated parasites of the genus Trypanosoma. HAT imposes a significant socio-economic burden on many countries in sub-Saharan Africa and its control is hampered by several drawbacks ranging from the ineffectiveness of drugs, complex dosing regimens, drug resistance, and lack of a vaccine. Despite more than a century of research and investigations, the development of a vaccine to tackle HAT is still challenging due to the complex biology of the pathogens. Advancements in computational modeling coupled with the availability of an unprecedented amount of omics data from different organisms have allowed the design of new generation vaccines that offer better antigenicity and safety profile. One of such new generation approaches is a multi-epitope vaccine (MEV) designed from a collection of antigenic peptides. A MEV can stimulate both cellular and humoral immune responses as well as avoiding possible allergenic reactions. Herein, we take advantage of this approach to design a MEV from conserved hypothetical plasma membrane proteins of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense, the trypanosome subspecies that is responsible for the west and central African forms of HAT. The designed MEV is 402 amino acids long (41.5 kDa). It is predicted to be antigenic, non-toxic, to assume a stable 3D conformation, and to interact with a key immune receptor. In addition, immune simulation foresaw adequate immune stimulation by the putative antigen and a lasting memory. Therefore, the designed chimeric vaccine represents a potential candidate that could be used to target HAT.

Keywords: Bioinformatics; Chimeric antigen; Immunoinformatics; Multi-epitope vaccine; Transmembrane proteins; Trypanosomiasis.