Helicobacter pylori, a significant factor in the development of gastric cancer and peptic ulcers, poses challenges for drug development due to its resilience. Computational approaches offer potential solutions for effective vaccine development targeting its antigens while ensuring stability and safety. The four critical antigenic proteins included in this study's innovative vaccine design are neuraminyllactose-binding hemagglutinin (HpaA), catalase (KatA), urease (UreB), and vacuolating toxin (VacA). Advanced immunoinformatics methods identified the possibility of triggering an immunological reaction. An adjuvant (50S ribosomal protein L7/L12) was fused to the vaccine sequence's N-terminus to improve immunogenicity. GROMACS molecular dynamics simulations with the OPLS-AA force field further improved the structure. The vaccine design and human Toll-like receptor 5 (TLR5) demonstrated a strong binding in docking tests. A model of simulating immune response confirmed the vaccine's efficacy and predicted how it would affect the immune system. Using the optimal restriction sites of the pET28b (+) expression vector, the vaccine candidate was cloned in silico. To validate the findings, this vaccine design will be synthesized in a bacterial system, and in experimental studies will be conducted in the following phase.
Keywords: Helicobacter pylori; Immunoinformatics; Multi-epitope vaccine; Therapeutic immunization.
Copyright © 2024 American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.