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In silico design of a novel peptide-based vaccine against the ubiquitous apicomplexan Toxoplasma gondii using surface antigens

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Abstract

Human toxoplasmosis is a global public health concern and a commercial vaccine is still lacking. The present in silico study was done to design a novel vaccine candidate using tachyzoite-specific SAG1-realted sequence (SRS) proteins. Overlapping B-cell and strictly-chosen human MHC-I binding epitopes were predicted and connected together using appropriate spacers. Moreover, a TLR4 agonist, human high mobility group box protein 1 (HMGB1), and His-tag were added to the N- and C-terminus of the vaccine sequence. The final vaccine had 442 residues and a molecular weight of 47.71 kDa. Physico-chemical evaluation showed a soluble, highly antigenic and non-allergen protein, with coils and helices as secondary structures. The vaccine 3D model was predicted by ITASSER server, subsequently refined and was shown to possess significant interactions with human TLR4. As well, potent stimulation of cellular and humoral immunity was demonstrated upon chimeric vaccine injection. Finally, the outputs showed that this vaccine model possesses top antigenicity, which could provoke significant cell-mediated immune profile including IFN-γ, and can be utilized towards prophylactic purposes.

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Data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate the staff of zoonotic diseases research center Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran for their kind assistance in preparation of this manuscript.

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zoonotic Diseases Research Center, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran

    Morteza Shams

  2. Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Saeed Heydaryan

  3. Department of Avian Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Mehdi Cheraghchi Bashi

  4. Islamic Azad University, Sanandaj Branch, Sanandaj, Iran

    Bahman Noroozi Gorgani

  5. Department of Medical Parasitology, School of Medicine, Dezful University of Medical Sciences, Dezful, Iran

    Ezatollah Ghasemi

  6. Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Neyshabur University of Medical Sciences, Neyshabur, Iran

    Hamidreza Majidiani

  7. Department of Parasitology and Mycology, School of Medicine, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran

    Naser Nazari

  8. Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran

    Hamid Irannejad

  9. Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran

    Hamid Irannejad

Authors
  1. Morteza Shams
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  2. Saeed Heydaryan
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  6. Hamidreza Majidiani
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  7. Naser Nazari
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  8. Hamid Irannejad
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Contributions

MS and NN conceived the study idea and protocol; HH, MCB and EG performed bioinformatics analyses, vaccine construction and subsequent validations; BNG and HM drafted the manuscript; HI performed docking analysis; MS and NN critically revised the work. All authors read and approved the final version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Naser Nazari.

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Shams, M., Heydaryan, S., Bashi, M.C. et al. In silico design of a novel peptide-based vaccine against the ubiquitous apicomplexan Toxoplasma gondii using surface antigens. In Silico Pharmacol. 11, 5 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40203-023-00140-w

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