title: Bioinformatic prediction of the epitopes ofEchinococcus granulosusantigen 5.
abstract: The aim of the present study was to predict and analyze the secondary structure, and B and T cell epitopes ofEchinococcus granulosusantigen 5 (Ag5) using online software in order to investigate its immunogenicity and preliminarily evaluate its potential as an effective antigen peptide vaccine for cystic echinococcosis. The PortParam program was used to analyze molecular weight, the theoretical isoelectric point, instability index and other physicochemical properties. The secondary structure of the Ag5 protein was predicted using Self-Optimized Prediction method With Alignment and the tertiary structure of the Ag5 protein was predicted using 3DLigandSite together with Center for Biological Sequence Analysis Prediction Servers. Furthermore, the Immune Epitope Database software was used to predict B cell epitopes, and T cell epitopes were predicted with the BioInformatics and Molecular Analysis Section and SYFPEITHI programs. The results demonstrated that α-helixes, β-turns, random coils and extended strands account for 23.35, 10.95, 41.32, and 24.38% of the secondary structure of the Ag5 protein, respectively. Ten potential B cell epitopes of Ag5 were identified as the amino acids sequences 27-39, 70-80, 117-130, 146-168, 250-262, 284-293, 339-349, 359-371, 403-412 and 454-462, and seven potential T cell epitopes were identified as the amino acid sequences 52-60, 57-65, 182-190, 231-239, 273-281, 318-326 and 467-475. Thus, ten B cell epitopes and seven T cell epitopes were identified on Ag5, suggesting the strong immunogenicity of this protein, which could be applied to design antigen peptide vaccines for echinococcosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221004, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221004, P.R. China; Department of Clinical Medicine, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221004, P.R. China.
authors.forename: De-Sheng
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221004, P.R. China; Department of Clinical Medicine, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221004, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yun-Juan
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221004, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Fen-Fen
authors.initials: FF
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221004, P.R. China; Department of Clinical Medicine, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221004, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Hui-Wen
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221004, P.R. China; Department of Clinical Medicine, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221004, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Ya-Wen
authors.initials: YW
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221004, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221004, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Lin-Lin
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221004, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Kui-Yang
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221004, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Ren-Xian
authors.initials: RX
authors.lastname: Tang
keywords: Echinococcus granulosus; antigen 5; antigen epitope; bioinformatics