A Web-Based Platform for Designing Vaccines against Existing and Emerging Strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Development of an effective vaccine against drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is crucial for saving millions of premature deaths every year due to tuberculosis. This paper describes a web portal developed for assisting researchers in designing vaccines against emerging Mtb strains using traditional and modern approaches. Firstly, we annotated 59 genomes of Mycobacterium species to understand similarity/dissimilarity between tuberculoid, non-tuberculoid and vaccine strains at genome level. Secondly, antigen-based vaccine candidates have been predicted in each Mtb strain. Thirdly, epitopes-based vaccine candidates were predicted/discovered in above antigen-based vaccine candidates that can stimulate all arms of immune system. Finally, a database of predicted vaccine candidates at epitopes as well at antigen level has been developed for above strains. In order to design vaccine against a newly sequenced genome of Mtb strain, server integrates three modules for identification of strain-, antigen-, epitope-specific vaccine candidates. We observed that 103,522 unique peptides (9mers) had the potential to induce an antibody response and/or promiscuous binder to MHC alleles and/or have the capability to stimulate T lymphocytes. In summary, this web-portal will be useful for researchers working on designing vaccines against Mtb including drug-resistant strains.


BACKGROUND
The database is available freely at http://crdd.osdd.net/raghava/mtbveb/.
Bioinformatics Centre, Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh, 160036, India.
Sandeep Kumar
SK
Dhanda
Bioinformatics Centre, Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh, 160036, India.
Pooja
P
Vir
Bioinformatics Centre, Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh, 160036, India.
Deepak
D
Singla
Bioinformatics Centre, Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh, 160036, India.
Sudheer
S
Gupta
Bioinformatics Centre, Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh, 160036, India.
Shailesh
S
Kumar
Bioinformatics Centre, Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh, 160036, India.
Gajendra P S
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8902-2876
GP
Raghava
D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods; D016208:Databases, Factual; D018604:Epitope Mapping / Q000379:methods; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D032581:Tuberculosis Vaccines / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D037521:Virulence Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology
D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D032581:Tuberculosis Vaccines; D037521:Virulence Factors