Epitope-Based Vaccine Design for Tuberculosis HIV Infection Through in silico Approach

Pak J Biol Sci. 2021 Jan;24(7):765-772. doi: 10.3923/pjbs.2021.765.772.

Abstract

<b>Background and Objective:</b> Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading causes of HIV-related death among people living with it. TB occurs more often severe in a weakened immune system, particularly when a patient is infected with HIV. People infected with HIV are 15-22 times more likely to fall ill with TB. In this research, an epitope-based vaccine has been specially designed for people living with HIV, since the current tuberculosis vaccine Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) has been proven to cause more harm than good in treating patients suffering from poor immune systems. <b>Materials and Methods:</b> The epitopes were selected from polysaccharide-protein of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and protein envelope of the Human immunodeficiency virus. B cell epitopes have been predicted using BepiPred 2.0, while T cell epitopes predicted using SMM, both are provided by Immune Epitope Database (IEDB). <b>Results:</b> This research had designed vaccine combinations for each type of epitopes and types of the pathogen with world population coverage of >85% for MHC class I epitopes and >99% for MHC class II epitopes. <b>Conclusion:</b> With each epitope were selected based on how strong its bond with HLA and how many HLA can bind with it. As this research was done through <i>in silico</i> approach, <i>in vivo</i> test is still needed to guarantee the result of the designed vaccine.

Keywords: HIV; HLA; Vaccine design; bioinformatics; epitope; immunology; tuberculosis.

MeSH terms

  • B-Lymphocytes / immunology*
  • Computer Simulation
  • Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte / immunology*
  • HIV Infections / complications
  • HIV Infections / prevention & control*
  • Humans
  • Tuberculosis / complications
  • Tuberculosis / prevention & control*

Substances

  • Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte