Fishing for vaccines againstVibrio choleraeusingin silicopan-proteomic reverse vaccinology approach

Abstract

BackgroundCholera, an acute enteric infection, is a serious health challenge in both the underdeveloped and the developing world. It is caused byVibrio choleraeafter ingestion of fecal contaminated food or water. Cholera outbreaks have recently been observed in regions facing natural calamities (i.e., earthquake in Haiti 2010) or war (i.e., ongoing civil war in Yemen 2016) where healthcare and sanitary setups have been disrupted as a consequence. Whole-cell oral cholera vaccines (OCVs) have been in market but their regimen efficacy has been questioned. A reverse vaccinology (RV) approach has been applied as a successful anti-microbial measure for many infectious diseases.MethodologyWith the aim of finding new protective antigens for vaccine development, theV. choleraeO1 (biovar eltr str. N16961) proteome was computationally screened in a sequential prioritization approach that focused on determining the antigenicity of potential vaccine candidates. Essential, accessible, virulent and immunogenic proteins were selected as potential candidates. The predicted epitopes were filtered for effective binding with MHC alleles and epitopes binding with greater MHC alleles were selected.ResultsIn this study, we report lipoproteinNlpD, outer membrane proteinOmpU, accessory colonization factorAcfA, Porin, putative and outer membrane proteinOmpWas potential candidates qualifying all the set criteria. These predicted epitopes can offer a potential for development of a reliable peptide or subunit vaccine forV. cholerae.