RESUMO
COVID-19, caused by the SARS-COV-2 virus, induces numerous immunological reactions linked to the severity of the clinical condition of those infected. The surface Spike protein (S protein) present in Sars-CoV-2 is responsible for the infection of host cells. This protein presents a high rate of mutations, which can increase virus transmissibility, infectivity, and immune evasion. Therefore, we propose to evaluate, using immunoinformatic techniques, the predicted epitopes for the S protein of seven variants of Sars-CoV-2. MHC class I and II epitopes were predicted and further assessed for their immunogenicity, interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) inducing capacity, and antigenicity. For B cells, linear and structural epitopes were predicted. For class I MHC epitopes, 40 epitopes were found for the clades of Wuhan, Clade 2, Clade 3, and 20AEU.1, Gamma, and Delta, in addition to 38 epitopes for Alpha and 44 for Omicron. For MHC II, there were differentially predicted epitopes for all variants and eight equally predicted epitopes. These were evaluated for differences in the MHC II alleles to which they would bind. Regarding B cell epitopes, 16 were found in the Wuhan variant, 14 in 22AEU.1 and in Clade 3, 15 in Clade 2, 11 in Alpha and Delta, 13 in Gamma, and 9 in Omicron. When compared, there was a reduction in the number of predicted epitopes concerning the Spike protein, mainly in the Delta and Omicron variants. These findings corroborate the need for updates seen today in bivalent mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 to promote a targeted immune response to the main circulating variant, Omicron, leading to more robust protection against this virus and avoiding cases of reinfection. When analyzing the specific epitopes for the RBD region of the spike protein, the Omicron variant did not present a B lymphocyte epitope from position 390, whereas the epitope at position 493 for MHC was predicted only for the Alpha, Gamma, and Omicron variants.
Assuntos
COVID-19 , SARS-CoV-2 , Glicoproteína da Espícula de Coronavírus , SARS-CoV-2/imunologia , SARS-CoV-2/genética , Humanos , Glicoproteína da Espícula de Coronavírus/imunologia , Glicoproteína da Espícula de Coronavírus/genética , Glicoproteína da Espícula de Coronavírus/química , COVID-19/imunologia , COVID-19/virologia , COVID-19/prevenção & controle , Brasil , Epitopos de Linfócito B/imunologia , Epitopos de Linfócito B/química , Epitopos/imunologia , Epitopos/química , Interferon gama/imunologia , Antígenos de Histocompatibilidade Classe II/imunologia , Antígenos de Histocompatibilidade Classe II/genéticaRESUMO
L-asparaginase is an essential drug used to treat acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL), a cancer of high prevalence in children. Several adverse reactions associated with L-asparaginase have been observed, mainly caused by immunogenicity and allergenicity. Some strategies have been adopted, such as searching for new microorganisms that produce the enzyme and applying protein engineering. Therefore, this work aimed to elucidate the molecular structure and predict the immunogenic profile of L-asparaginase from Penicillium cerradense, recently revealed as a new fungus of the genus Penicillium and producer of the enzyme, as a motivation to search for alternatives to bacterial L-asparaginase. In the evolutionary relationship, L-asparaginase from P. cerradense closely matches Aspergillus species. Using in silico tools, we characterized the enzyme as a protein fragment of 378 amino acids (39 kDa), including a signal peptide containing 17 amino acids, and the isoelectric point at 5.13. The oligomeric state was predicted to be a homotetramer. Also, this L-asparaginase presented a similar immunogenicity response (T- and B-cell epitopes) compared to Escherichia coli and Dickeya chrysanthemi enzymes. These results suggest a potentially useful L-asparaginase, with insights that can drive strategies to improve enzyme production.
Assuntos
Asparaginase , Simulação por Computador , Penicillium , Asparaginase/química , Asparaginase/imunologia , Asparaginase/metabolismo , Penicillium/imunologia , Penicillium/enzimologia , Sequência de Aminoácidos , Proteínas Fúngicas/química , Proteínas Fúngicas/imunologia , Proteínas Fúngicas/metabolismo , Epitopos de Linfócito B/imunologia , Epitopos de Linfócito B/química , Epitopos de Linfócito T/imunologia , Epitopos de Linfócito T/química , Humanos , Aspergillus/imunologia , Aspergillus/enzimologia , Escherichia coli/genética , Dickeya chrysanthemi/enzimologia , Dickeya chrysanthemi/imunologia , Modelos MolecularesRESUMO
The public health system is extremely dependent on the use of vaccines to immunize the population from a series of infectious and dangerous diseases, preventing the system from collapsing and millions of people dying every year. However, to develop these vaccines and effectively monitor these diseases, it is necessary to use accurate diagnostic methods capable of identifying highly immunogenic regions within a given pathogenic protein. Existing experimental methods are expensive, time-consuming, and require arduous laboratory work, as they require the screening of a large number of potential candidate epitopes, making the methods extremely laborious, especially for application to larger microorganisms. In the last decades, researchers have developed in silico prediction methods, based on machine learning, to identify these markers, to drastically reduce the list of potential candidate epitopes for experimental tests, and, consequently, to reduce the laborious task associated with their mapping. Despite these efforts, the tools and methods still have low accuracy, slow diagnosis, and offline training. Thus, we develop a method to predict B-cell linear epitopes which are based on a Fuzzy-ARTMAP neural network architecture, called BepFAMN (B Epitope Prediction Fuzzy ARTMAP Artificial Neural Network). This was trained using a linear averaging scheme on 15 properties that include an amino acid ratio scale and a set of 14 physicochemical scales. The database used was obtained from the IEDB website, from which the amino acid sequences with the annotations of their positive and negative epitopes were taken. To train and validate the knowledge models, five-fold cross-validation and competition techniques were used. The BepiPred-2.0 database, an independent database, was used for the tests. In our experiment, the validation dataset reached sensitivity = 91.50%, specificity = 91.49%, accuracy = 91.49%, MCC = 0.83, and an area under the curve (AUC) ROC of approximately 0.9289. The result in the testing dataset achieves a significant improvement, with sensitivity = 81.87%, specificity = 74.75%, accuracy = 78.27%, MCC = 0.56, and AOC = 0.7831. These achieved values demonstrate that BepFAMN outperforms all other linear B-cell epitope prediction tools currently used. In addition, the architecture provides mechanisms for online training, which allow the user to find a new B-cell linear epitope, and to improve the model without need to re-train itself with the whole dataset. This fact contributes to a considerable reduction in the number of potential linear epitopes to be experimentally validated, reducing laboratory time and accelerating the development of diagnostic tests, vaccines, and immunotherapeutic approaches.
Assuntos
Epitopos de Linfócito B , Redes Neurais de Computação , Sequência de Aminoácidos , Área Sob a Curva , Epitopos de Linfócito B/química , HumanosRESUMO
Zika virus (ZIKV) is an arbovirus from the Flaviviridae family and Flavivirus genus. Neurological events have been associated with ZIKV-infected individuals, such as Guillain-Barré syndrome, an autoimmune acute neuropathy that causes nerve demyelination and can induce paralysis. With the increase of ZIKV infection incidence in 2015, malformation and microcephaly cases in newborns have grown considerably, which suggested congenital transmission. Therefore, the development of an effective vaccine against ZIKV became an urgent need. Live attenuated vaccines present some theoretical risks for administration in pregnant women. Thus, we developed an in silico multiepitope vaccine against ZIKV. All structural and non-structural proteins were investigated using immunoinformatics tools designed for the prediction of CD4 + and CD8 + T cell epitopes. We selected 13 CD8 + and 12 CD4 + T cell epitopes considering parameters such as binding affinity to HLA class I and II molecules, promiscuity based on the number of different HLA alleles that bind to the epitopes, and immunogenicity. ZIKV Envelope protein domain III (EDIII) was added to the vaccine construct, creating a hybrid protein domain-multiepitope vaccine. Three high scoring continuous and two discontinuous B cell epitopes were found in EDIII. Aiming to increase the candidate vaccine antigenicity even further, we tested secondary and tertiary structures and physicochemical parameters of the vaccine conjugated to four different protein adjuvants: flagellin, 50S ribosomal protein L7/L12, heparin-binding hemagglutinin, or RS09 synthetic peptide. The addition of the flagellin adjuvant increased the vaccine's predicted antigenicity. In silico predictions revealed that the protein is a probable antigen, non-allergenic and predicted to be stable. The vaccine's average population coverage is estimated to be 87.86%, which indicates it can be administered worldwide. Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMC) of individuals with previous ZIKV infection were tested for cytokine production in response to the pool of CD4 and CD8 ZIKV peptide selected. CD4 + and CD8 + T cells showed significant production of IFN-γ upon stimulation and IL-2 production was also detected by CD8 + T cells, which indicated the potential of our peptides to be recognized by specific T cells and induce immune response. In conclusion, we developed an in silico universal vaccine predicted to induce broad and high-coverage cellular and humoral immune responses against ZIKV, which can be a good candidate for posterior in vivo validation.
Assuntos
Biologia Computacional/métodos , Epitopos de Linfócito B/imunologia , Epitopos de Linfócito T/imunologia , Proteínas Virais/imunologia , Vacinas Virais/química , Vacinas Virais/imunologia , Zika virus/imunologia , Adjuvantes Imunológicos , Autoimunidade , Linfócitos T CD4-Positivos/imunologia , Linfócitos T CD8-Positivos/imunologia , Citocinas/metabolismo , Epitopos de Linfócito B/química , Epitopos de Linfócito T/química , Flagelina/imunologia , Humanos , Imunidade Humoral , Imunogenicidade da Vacina , Lectinas/imunologia , Leucócitos Mononucleares/imunologia , Peptídeos/imunologia , Filogenia , Proteínas Ribossômicas/imunologia , Proteínas do Envelope Viral/química , Proteínas do Envelope Viral/imunologia , Proteínas Virais/química , Zika virus/química , Infecção por Zika virus/imunologia , Infecção por Zika virus/virologiaRESUMO
The four serotypes of Dengue virus (DENV1-4) are arboviruses (arthropod-borne viruses) that belong to the Flavivirus genus, Flaviviridae family. They are the causative agents of an infectious disease called dengue, an important global public health problem with significant social-economic impact. Thus, the development of safe and effective dengue vaccines is a priority according to the World Health Organization. Only one anti-dengue vaccine has already been licensed in endemic countries and two formulations are under phase III clinical trials. In this study, we aimed to compare the main anti-dengue virus vaccines, DENGVAXIA®, LAV-TDV, and TAK-003, regarding their antigens and potential to protect. We studied the conservation of both, B and T cell epitopes involved in immunological control of DENV infection along with vaccine viruses and viral isolates. In addition, we assessed the population coverage of epitope sets contained in each vaccine formulation with regard to different human populations. As main results, we found that all three vaccines contain the main B cell epitopes involved in viral neutralization. Similarly, LAV-TDV and TAK-003 contain most of T cell epitopes involved in immunological protection, a finding not observed in DENGVAXIA®, which explains main limitations of the only licensed dengue vaccine. In summary, the levels of presence and absence of epitopes that are target for protective immune response in the three main anti-dengue virus vaccines are shown in this study. Our results suggest that investing in vaccines that contain the majority of epitopes involved in protective immunity (cellular and humoral arms) is an important issue to be considered.
Assuntos
Vacinas contra Dengue/imunologia , Vírus da Dengue/imunologia , Dengue/prevenção & controle , Epitopos de Linfócito B/imunologia , Epitopos de Linfócito T/imunologia , Sequência de Aminoácidos , Anticorpos Neutralizantes/imunologia , Anticorpos Antivirais/imunologia , Sequência Conservada , Vacinas contra Dengue/genética , Epitopos de Linfócito B/química , Epitopos de Linfócito B/genética , Epitopos de Linfócito T/química , Epitopos de Linfócito T/genética , Humanos , Programas de Imunização , Modelos Moleculares , Relação Estrutura-Atividade , Vacinação , Vacinas SintéticasRESUMO
Bats are hosts of a range of viruses, and their great diversity and unique characteristics that distinguish them from all other mammals have been related to the maintenance, evolution, and dissemination of these pathogens. Recently, very divergent hantaviruses have been discovered in distinct species of bats worldwide, but their association with human disease remains unclear. Considering the low success rates of detecting hantavirus RNA in bat tissues and that to date no hantaviruses have been isolated from bat samples, immunodiagnostic tools could be very helpful to understand pathogenesis, epidemiology, and geographic range of bat-borne hantaviruses. In this sense, we aimed to identify in silico immunogenic B-cell epitopes present on bat-borne hantaviruses nucleoprotein (NP) and verify if they are conserved among them and other selected members of Mammantavirinae, using a combination of (the three most used) different prediction algorithms, ELLIPRO, Discotope 2.0, and PEPITO server. To support our data, we in silico modeled 3D structures of NPs from representative members of bat-borne hantaviruses, using comparative and ab initio methods due to the absence of crystallographic structures of studied proteins or similar models in the Protein Data Bank. Our analysis demonstrated the antigenic complexity of the bat-borne hantaviruses group, showing a low sequence conservation of epitopes among members of its own group and a minor conservation degree in comparison to Orthohantavirus, with a recognized importance to public health. Our data suggest that the use of recombinant rodent-borne hantavirus NPs to cross-detect antibodies against bat- or shrew-borne viruses could underestimate the real impact of this virus in nature.
Assuntos
Antígenos Virais/imunologia , Quirópteros/virologia , Epitopos de Linfócito B/química , Epitopos de Linfócito B/imunologia , Proteínas do Nucleocapsídeo/química , Proteínas do Nucleocapsídeo/imunologia , Orthohantavírus/imunologia , Algoritmos , Sequência de Aminoácidos , Aminoácidos/análise , Animais , Antígenos Virais/química , Sequência Conservada , Orthohantavírus/química , Orthohantavírus/isolamento & purificação , Orthohantavírus/fisiologia , Especificidade de Hospedeiro , Modelos Moleculares , Filogenia , Conformação Proteica , Estrutura Secundária de Proteína , Musaranhos/virologiaRESUMO
The development of vaccines is a crucial response against the COVID-19 pandemic and innovative nanovaccines could increase the potential to address this remarkable challenge. In the present study a B cell epitope (S461-493) from the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 was selected and its immunogenicity validated in sheep. This synthetic peptide was coupled to gold nanoparticles (AuNP) functionalized with SH-PEG-NH2 via glutaraldehyde-mediated coupling to obtain the AuNP-S461-493 candidate, which showed in s.c.-immunized mice a superior immunogenicity (IgG responses) when compared to soluble S461-493; and led to increased expression of relevant cytokines in splenocyte cultures. Interestingly, the response triggered by AuNP-S461-493 was similar in magnitude to that induced using a conventional strong adjuvant (Freund's adjuvant). This study provides a platform for the development of AuNP-based nanovaccines targeting specific SARS-CoV-2 epitopes.
Assuntos
Vacinas contra COVID-19 , Epitopos de Linfócito B , Ouro , Imunogenicidade da Vacina , Nanopartículas Metálicas , Peptídeos , Glicoproteína da Espícula de Coronavírus , Animais , Vacinas contra COVID-19/síntese química , Vacinas contra COVID-19/química , Vacinas contra COVID-19/imunologia , Vacinas contra COVID-19/farmacologia , Epitopos de Linfócito B/química , Epitopos de Linfócito B/imunologia , Epitopos de Linfócito B/farmacologia , Ouro/química , Ouro/farmacologia , Células HEK293 , Humanos , Nanopartículas Metálicas/química , Nanopartículas Metálicas/uso terapêutico , Camundongos , Camundongos Endogâmicos BALB C , Peptídeos/síntese química , Peptídeos/química , Peptídeos/imunologia , Peptídeos/farmacologia , Ovinos , Glicoproteína da Espícula de Coronavírus/química , Glicoproteína da Espícula de Coronavírus/imunologia , Glicoproteína da Espícula de Coronavírus/farmacologiaRESUMO
The immune system of sturgeons, one of the most ancient and economically valuable fish worldwide, is poorly understood. The lack of molecular tools and data about infection biomarkers hinders the possibility to monitor sturgeon health during farming and detect infection outbreaks. To tackle this issue, we mined publicly available transcriptomic datasets and identified putative positive acute-phase proteins (APPs) of Russian sturgeons that could be induced by a bacterial infection and monitored using non-invasive methods. Teleost literature compelled us to focus on five promising candidates: hepcidin, a warm acclimation associated hemopexin, intelectin, serum amyloid A protein (SAA) and serotransferrin. Among them, SAA was the most upregulated protein at the mRNA level in the liver of sturgeons challenged with heat-inactivated or live Aeromonas hydrophila. To assess whether this upregulation yielded increasing SAA levels in circulation, we developed an in-house ELISA to quantify SAA levels in sturgeon serum. Circulating SAA rose upon bacterial challenge and positively correlated with hepatic saa expression. This is the first time serum SAA has been quantified in an Actinopterygii fish. Since APPs vary across different fish species, our work sheds light on sturgeon acute-phase response, revealing that SAA is a positive APP with potential value as infection biomarker.
Assuntos
Proteínas de Fase Aguda/genética , Aeromonas hydrophila , Peixes/genética , Peixes/microbiologia , Interações Hospedeiro-Patógeno/genética , Proteína Amiloide A Sérica/genética , Proteínas de Fase Aguda/química , Reação de Fase Aguda , Sequência de Aminoácidos , Animais , Epitopos de Linfócito B/química , Epitopos de Linfócito B/genética , Epitopos de Linfócito B/imunologia , Doenças dos Peixes/genética , Doenças dos Peixes/microbiologia , Peixes/imunologia , Perfilação da Expressão Gênica , Interações Hospedeiro-Patógeno/imunologia , Imunidade Inata , Modelos Moleculares , Conformação Proteica , Proteína Amiloide A Sérica/química , Relação Estrutura-Atividade , TranscriptomaRESUMO
Circumsporozoite protein (CSP) is the primary pre-erythrocytic vaccine target in Plasmodium species. Knowledge about their genetic diversity can help predict vaccine efficacy and the spread of novel parasite variants. Thus, we investigated pvcsp gene polymorphisms in 219 isolates (136 from Brazilian Amazon [BA], 71 from Rio de Janeiro Atlantic Forest [AF], and 12 from non-Brazilian countries [NB]). Forty-eight polymorphic sites were detected, 46 in the central repeat region (CR), and two in the C-terminal region. Also, the CR presents InDels and a variable number of repeats. All samples correspond to the VK210 variant, and 24 VK210 subtypes based on CR. Nucleotide diversity (π = 0.0135) generated a significant number of haplotypes (168) with low genetic differentiation between the Brazilian regions (Fst = 0.208). The haplotype network revealed similar distances among the BA and AF regions. The linkage disequilibrium indicates that recombination does not seem to be acting in diversity, reinforcing natural selection's role in accelerating adaptive evolution. The high diversity (low Fst) and polymorphism frequencies could be indicators of balancing selection. Although malaria in BA and AF have distinct vector species and different host immune pressures, consistent genetic signature was found in two regions. The immunodominant B-cell epitope mapped in the CR varies from seven to 19 repeats. The CR T-cell epitope is conserved only in 39 samples. Concerning to C-terminal region, the Th2R epitope presented nonsynonymous SNP only in 6% of Brazilian samples, and the Th3R epitope remained conserved in all studied regions. We conclude that, although the uneven distribution of alleles may jeopardize the deployment of vaccines directed to a specific variable locus, a unique vaccine formulation could protect populations in all Brazilian regions.
Assuntos
Variação Genética , Parasitos/genética , Plasmodium vivax/genética , Proteínas de Protozoários/genética , Seleção Genética , Sequência de Aminoácidos , Substituição de Aminoácidos , Animais , Oceano Atlântico , Brasil , Códon/genética , Epitopos de Linfócito B/química , Epitopos de Linfócito B/genética , Epitopos de Linfócito T/química , Epitopos de Linfócito T/genética , Geografia , Haplótipos/genética , Mutação INDEL/genética , Desequilíbrio de Ligação/genética , Nucleotídeos/genética , Peptídeos/química , Filogenia , Plasmodium vivax/isolamento & purificação , Polimorfismo Genético , Proteínas de Protozoários/químicaRESUMO
COVID-19 is a worldwide emergency; therefore, there is a critical need for foundational knowledge about B and T cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 essential for vaccine development. However, little information is available defining which determinants of SARS-CoV-2 other than the spike glycoprotein are recognized by the host immune system. In this study, we focus on the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein as a suitable candidate target for vaccine formulations. Major B and T cell epitopes of the SARS-CoV-2 N protein are predicted and resulting sequences compared with the homolog immunological domains of other coronaviruses that infect human beings. The most dominant of B cell epitope is located between 176-206 amino acids in the SRGGSQASSRSSSRSRNSSRNSTPGSSRGTS sequence. Further, we identify sequences which are predicted to bind multiple common MHC I and MHC II alleles. Most notably there is a region of potential T cell cross-reactivity within the SARS-CoV-2 N protein position 102-110 amino acids that traverses multiple human alpha and betacoronaviruses. Vaccination strategies designed to target these conserved epitope regions could generate immune responses that are cross-reactive across human coronaviruses, with potential to protect or modulate disease. Finally, these predictions can facilitate effective vaccine design against this high priority virus.