Mehrdad Gholami1, Alireza Salimi Chirani2, Mona Moshiri3, Mansour Sedighi1, Abazar Pournajaf1, Masoud Tohidfar4, Gholamreza Irajian1. 1. Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 2. Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 3. Department of Pathobiology, Division of Microbiology, Faculty of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 4. Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Neisseria meningitidis, a life-threatening human pathogen with the potential to cause large epidemics, can be isolated from the nasopharynx of 5-15% of adults. The aim of the current study was to evaluate biophysical and biochemical properties and immunological aspects of chimeric acyl-carrier protein-macrophage infectivity potentiator protein-type IV pilus biogenesis protein antigen (ACP-MIP-PilQ) from N. meningitidis serogroup B strain. METHODS: Biochemical properties and multiple alignments were predicted by appropriate web servers. Secondary molecular structures were predicted based on Chou and Fasman, Garnier-Osguthorpe-Robson, and Neural Network methods. Tertiary modeling elucidated conformational properties of the chimeric protein. Proteasome cleavage and transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP) binding sites, and T- and B-cell antigenic epitopes, were predicted using bioinformatic web servers. RESULTS: Based on our in silico and immunoinformatics analyses, the ACP-MIP-PilQ protein (AMP) can induce high-level cross-strain bactericidal activity. In addition, several immune proteasomal cleavage sites were detected. The 22 epitopes associated with MHC class I and class II (DR) alleles were confirmed in the AMP. Thirty linear B-cell epitopes as antigenic regions were predicted from the full-length protein. CONCLUSION: All predicted properties of the AMP indicate it could be a good candidate for further immunological in vitro and in vivo studies.
BACKGROUND:Neisseria meningitidis, a life-threatening human pathogen with the potential to cause large epidemics, can be isolated from the nasopharynx of 5-15% of adults. The aim of the current study was to evaluate biophysical and biochemical properties and immunological aspects of chimeric acyl-carrier protein-macrophage infectivity potentiator protein-type IV pilus biogenesis protein antigen (ACP-MIP-PilQ) from N. meningitidis serogroup B strain. METHODS: Biochemical properties and multiple alignments were predicted by appropriate web servers. Secondary molecular structures were predicted based on Chou and Fasman, Garnier-Osguthorpe-Robson, and Neural Network methods. Tertiary modeling elucidated conformational properties of the chimeric protein. Proteasome cleavage and transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP) binding sites, and T- and B-cell antigenic epitopes, were predicted using bioinformatic web servers. RESULTS: Based on our in silico and immunoinformatics analyses, the ACP-MIP-PilQ protein (AMP) can induce high-level cross-strain bactericidal activity. In addition, several immune proteasomal cleavage sites were detected. The 22 epitopes associated with MHC class I and class II (DR) alleles were confirmed in the AMP. Thirty linear B-cell epitopes as antigenic regions were predicted from the full-length protein. CONCLUSION: All predicted properties of the AMP indicate it could be a good candidate for further immunological in vitro and in vivo studies.
Entities:
Keywords:
Chimeric protein; In silico; Neisseria meningitides; Vaccine; serogroup B
Authors: Richard F Collins; Stephan A Frye; Ashraf Kitmitto; Robert C Ford; Tone Tønjum; Jeremy P Derrick Journal: J Biol Chem Date: 2004-07-14 Impact factor: 5.157
Authors: Stephan A Frye; Reza Assalkhou; Richard F Collins; Robert C Ford; Christoffer Petersson; Jeremy P Derrick; Tone Tønjum Journal: Microbiology Date: 2006-12 Impact factor: 2.777