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New highly antigenic linear B cell epitope peptides from PvAMA-1 as potential vaccine candidates

2021; Public Library of Science; Volume: 16; Issue: 11 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1371/journal.pone.0258637

1932-6203

Raianna F. Fantin, Vanêssa Gomes Fraga, Camila de Almeida Lopes, Isabella Carvalho De Azevedo, João Luís Reis-Cunha, Dhélio B. Pereira, Francisco Pereira Lobo, Marcela M. de Oliveira, Anderson Coqueiro dos Santos, Daniella Castanheira Bartholomeu, Ricardo Toshio Fujiwara, Lilian Lacerda Bueno,

Antimicrobial Peptides and Activities

Peptide-based vaccines have demonstrated to be an important way to induce long-lived immune responses and, therefore, a promising strategy in the rational of vaccine development. As to malaria, among the classic vaccine targets, the Apical membrane antigen (AMA-1) was proven to have important B cell epitopes that can induce specific immune response and, hence, became key players for a vaccine approach. The peptides selection was carried out using a bioinformatic approach based on Hidden Markov Models profiles of known antigens and propensity scale methods based on hydrophilicity and secondary structure prediction. The antigenicity of the selected B-cell peptides was assessed by multiple serological assays using sera from acute P . vivax infected subjects. The synthetic peptides were recognized by 45.5%, 48.7% and 32.2% of infected subjects for peptides I, II and III respectively. Moreover, when synthetized together (tripeptide), the reactivity increases up to 62%, which is comparable to the reactivity found against the whole protein Pv AMA-1 (57%). Furthermore, IgG reactivity against the tripeptide after depletion was reduced by 42%, indicating that these epitopes may be responsible for a considerable part of the protein immunogenicity. These results represent an excellent perspective regarding future chimeric vaccine constructions that may come to contemplate several targets with the potential to generate the robust and protective immune response that a vivax malaria vaccine needs to succeed.