Design of Epitope‐Based Peptide Vaccine against Pseudomonas aeruginosa Fructose Bisphosphate Aldolase Protein Using Immunoinformatics
Mustafa Elhag, Ruaa Mohamed Alaagib, Nagla Mohamed Ahmed, Mustafa Abubaker, Esraa Musa Haroun, Sahar Obi Abd Albagi, Mohammed A. Hassan
Abstract
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a common pathogen that is responsible for serious hospital‐acquired infections, ventilator‐associated pneumonia, and various sepsis syndromes. Also, it is a multidrug‐resistant pathogen recognized for its ubiquity and its intrinsically advanced antibiotic‐resistant mechanisms. It usually affects immunocompromised individuals but can also infect immunocompetent individuals. There is no vaccine against it available till now. This study predicts an effective epitope‐based vaccine against fructose bisphosphate aldolase (FBA) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa using immunoinformatics tools. The protein sequences were obtained from NCBI, and prediction tests were undertaken to analyze possible epitopes for B and T cells. Three B cell epitopes passed the antigenicity, accessibility, and hydrophilicity tests. Six MHC I epitopes were found to be promising, while four MHC II epitopes were found promising from the result set. Nineteen epitopes were shared between MHC I and II results. For the population coverage, the epitopes covered 95.62% worldwide excluding certain MHC II alleles. We recommend in vivo and in vitro studies to prove its effectiveness.