Bioinformatics approach for screening and modeling of putative T cell epitopes from Por B protein of <i>Neisseria meningitides</i> as vaccine constructs

Abstract

Vaccine design based on conventional approaches requires longer time for identifying candidate antigens as targets. No effective vaccine for meningitis is known, which covers all age groups. The present study is a computational approach for identification of candidate T cell epitopes from Por B protein of <i>Neisseria meningitidis</i> (MC58) using immunoinformatics tools and structural simulation. We report two nonameric epitopes (²⁷³KGLVDDADI²⁸², loop VII) and(¹⁷⁰GRHNSESYH¹⁷⁹, loop IV) which exhibit good binding with MHC molecules and low energy minimization values providing stability to the peptide-MHC complex. The predicted peptides are present on the surface exposed immunogenic loops of class 3 OMP allele of <i>Neisseria</i> with no similarity to human proteome. These peptides could be used in designing a DNA/subunit vaccine, however, these will further be tested by wet lab studies for a targeted vaccine design against <i>N. meningitidis</i> strain MC58.