Design of an Epitope-Based Peptide Vaccine Against the Major Allergen Amb a 11 Using Immunoinformatic Approaches

• Published in: The Protein Journal Vol. 41; no. 2; pp. 315 - 326
• Main Authors: Moten, Dzhemal, Kolchakova, Desislava, Todorov, Krasimir, Mladenova, Tsvetelina, Dzhambazov, Balik
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.04.2022; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Allergens; Allergic diseases; Allergic reaction; Allergies; Allergy; Ambrosia artemisiifolia; Analysis; Animal Anatomy; Antibodies; Antigenic determinants; Biochemistry; Bioorganic Chemistry; CD4 antigen; CD8 antigen; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Conserved sequence; Epitopes; Force and energy; Histology; Immunoglobulin E; Lymphocytes; Lymphocytes B; Lymphocytes T; Major histocompatibility complex; Molecular docking; Morphology; Organic Chemistry; Peptides; Pollen; Population; T cells; Vaccines; World population; Europe; Peptide-based vaccine; Pollen allergy; Amb a 11; Immunoinformatics; Ambrosia artemisiifolia
• ISSN: 1572-3887; 1875-8355; 1573-4943
• DOI: 10.1007/s10930-022-10050-z

Allergic diseases are a socially significant problem of global importance. The number of people suffering from pollen allergies has increased dramatically in recent decades. Pollen allergies affect up to 30% of the world population. Pollen of the common ragweed ( Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.) is one of the most aggressive allergens in the world. We have used a series of immunoinformatics approaches to design an effective epitope-based vaccine, which might induce a competent immunity against a major allergen Amb a 11. CD8+ and CD4+ T-cell epitopes and their corresponding MHC restricted alleles were identified by prediction tools provided by immune epitope database (IEDB). Among T-cell epitopes, MHC class I peptide (GLMEPAFTYV) and MHC class II peptide (LVCFSFSLVLILGLV) were identified as most suitable. From all predicted B-cell epitopes, only one epitope (GKLVKF SEQQLVDC ) containing sequence from the conserved region was chosen for next processing. Selected epitopes have been validated by molecular docking analysis. These epitopes showed a very strong binding affinity to MHC I molecule and MHC II molecule with binding energy scores − 729.3 and − 725.0 kcal/mole respectively. Performed experimental validation showed that only the MHC class II peptide (LVCFSFSLVLILGLV) can stimulate T cells from ragweed allergic patients and IgE antibodies specific to the ragweed pollen do not recognize this epitope. Therefore, this peptide could be potentially used as a vaccine against the major allergen Amb a 11. The B-cell epitope GKLVKF SEQQLVDC forms a stable complex with the IgE molecule (energy weighted score − 695,0 kcal/mole). Tested sera from patients with ragweed allergy showed that the ragweed specific IgE antibodies can bind to the identified B-cell epitope. Population coverage analysis was performed for CD8+ and CD4+ T-cell epitopes. It was predicted that CD4+ T-cell epitope (LVCFSFSLVLILGLV) covers 90.56% of the population of Europe and 99.36% of the world population. CD8+ T-cell epitope (GLMEPAFTYV) has a population coverage of 77.37% for Europe and 71.35% for all the world.