A multi-epitope vaccine candidate design against Coxiellaburnetii causing Q fever

Background and Aim : Q fever is a zoonotic and important infectious disease caused by Coxiellaburnetii. Because of numerous outbreaks and the endemic potential of C. burnetii which is withoutany approved vaccine, the prognosis of the infection is crucial. Targeting structural and nonstructuralproteins is a proper strategy to reach the aim of vaccination. Com۱, GroEL, Mip, OmpH,ComE, IcmG, CH۶۰, CpoB, YbgF, YufA, SucB and RpIL are the most important proteins in thepathogenesis of this bacterium. The aim of this work was performing an immunoinformatics studyto identify a multi-epitope-based subunit vaccine candidate.Methods : In this study, designing a synthetic in silico multi-epitope vaccine against C. burnetiiwas followed using immunoinformatics approach. Primary epitopes were extracted from the set ofbacterial protein structures and then the potential of peptide sequences in immune response wasevaluated and antigenic peptides were selected. In the next step, the non-allergenic epitopes werefused to each other with appropriate linkers, followed by appending a suitable adjuvant to increasethe immunogenicity of the polypeptide vaccine. Therefore it seems that these peptides have goodpotential for experimental analysis and can prove to be useful against C. burnetii. Antigenicproteins, and T cell epitopes were selected. Antigenicity, allergenicity, and toxicity of the selectedepitopes were evaluated using the VaxiJen ۲.۰, AllerTOP, and ToxinPred servers, respectively.Results : The affinity of the proposed vaccine to MHC I and II molecules was measured in amolecular docking study. Resultant vaccine had high antigenicity, stability, and a half-lifecompatible with utilization in vaccination programs.Conclusion : In conclusion, the validated multi-epitope sequences had the potential as a vaccinecandidate to ensure protection against Q fever agent.

کلیدواژه ها:

Q fever ، Coxiella burnetii ، peptide-based vaccine ، immune informatics ، epitope