In Silico Investigation for Evaluation of the Potential of the SclA Protein in Streptococcus pyogenes.
BACKGROUND
Streptococcus pyogenes is an important pathogen that is associated with a range of infections in humans, and causes common and severe invasive diseases. Currently, antimicrobial therapy is the first choice for the treatment of S. pyogenes; however, the emergence of antimicrobial resistance and side effects of antibacterial drugs is increasing. Consequently, there is an increased demand for novel drug targets and vaccine design.


OBJECTIVE
To develop an effective vaccine against Streptococcus pyogenes (group A streptococcus) , we described a novel collagen-like surface protein of S. pyogenes which is important virulence factors.


METHODS
In this study, we focused on the SclA protein of S. pyogenes and characterized it using bioinformatic tools to introduce it as a candidate novel drug as a candidate for use in vaccine design. The secondary structure was determined and the 3D structure was modeled using SWISS-MODEL workspace. The immune epitope database analysis (IEDB) resource was used to predict regions of SclA that are likely to be recognized as epitopes.


RESULTS
The SclA protein is present on the cell surface of the cell and has interact with a common ligand by its hypervariable NH2-terminal regions. The IEDB showed that the maximum peptide length that is likely to be predicted as an epitope is of 6 amino acids, from amino acid 26 to 31, with a score of 4.791. This epitope can be considered for use in Antibody and drug design.


CONCLUSIONS
Data from this study about SclA were not sufficient and further studies are needed; however, the information here suggests that SclA could be a candidate for further research on the design of drugs and vaccines against S. pyogenes infections.
Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
Maryam
M
Pourhajibagher
Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
Abbas
A
Bahador
Computer Simulation; Streptococcal Collagen-Like Protein A; Streptococcus pyogenes; Vaccine Candidate