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Ghaffari AD, Dalimi A, Ghaffarifar F, et al. Structural predication and antigenic analysis of ROP16 protein utilizing immunoinformatics methods in order to identification of a vaccine against Toxoplasma gondii: An in silico approach. Microb Pathog. 2020;142:104079doi: 10.1016/j.micpath.2020.104079.
Ghaffari, A. D., Dalimi, A., Ghaffarifar, F., & Pirestani, M. (2020). Structural predication and antigenic analysis of ROP16 protein utilizing immunoinformatics methods in order to identification of a vaccine against Toxoplasma gondii: An in silico approach. Microbial pathogenesis, 142104079. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micpath.2020.104079
Ghaffari, Ali Dalir, et al. "Structural predication and antigenic analysis of ROP16 protein utilizing immunoinformatics methods in order to identification of a vaccine against Toxoplasma gondii: An in silico approach." Microbial pathogenesis vol. 142 (2020): 104079. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micpath.2020.104079
Ghaffari AD, Dalimi A, Ghaffarifar F, Pirestani M. Structural predication and antigenic analysis of ROP16 protein utilizing immunoinformatics methods in order to identification of a vaccine against Toxoplasma gondii: An in silico approach. Microb Pathog. 2020 Feb 19;142:104079. doi: 10.1016/j.micpath.2020.104079. Epub 2020 Feb 19. PMID: 32084578.
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Microb Pathog. 2020 Feb 19;142:104079. doi: 10.1016/j.micpath.2020.104079. Epub 2020 Feb 19.

Structural predication and antigenic analysis of ROP16 protein utilizing immunoinformatics methods in order to identification of a vaccine against Toxoplasma gondii: An in silico approach.

Microbial pathogenesis

Ali Dalir Ghaffari, Abdolhossein Dalimi, Fatemeh Ghaffarifar, Majid Pirestani

Affiliations

  1. Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran. Electronic address: [email protected].
  2. Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran. Electronic address: [email protected].
  3. Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran. Electronic address: [email protected].
  4. Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 32084578 DOI: 10.1016/j.micpath.2020.104079

Abstract

Toxoplasmosis, caused by Toxoplasma gondii, is a common parasitic disease, affecting almost one-third of the world's population. Currently, there are no effective treatments for inhibiting the formation of chronic tissue cysts in infected hosts. Thus, the production of appropriate vaccines against this pathogen is an important goal to avoid toxoplasmosis. considering the role of rhoptry antigens like ROP16 in virulence and satisfactory immunogenicity, they can be used as promising vaccine candidates against T. gondii. In the present study, an in silico approach was used to analyze various aspects of the ROP16 protein, including physicochemical characteristics, the potential epitopes of B and T-cells, the secondary and tertiary structure, the subcellular localization, the transmembrane domain, and other important features of this protein using several bioinformatics tools to design a proper vaccine against T. gondii. The results showed that ROP16 protein includes 93 potential post-translational modification sites. The secondary structure of the ROP16 protein comprises 34.23% alpha-helix, 54.46% random coil, and 11.32% extended strand. Moreover, several potential B- and T-cell epitopes were identified for ROP16. Based on the results of Ramachandran plot, 84.64% of the amino acid residues were located in the favored, 10.34% in allowed, and 5.02% in outlier regions. Furthermore, the results of the antigenicity and allergenicity assessment noted that this protein was immunogenic and non-allergenic. Our findings suggested that structural and functional predictions applied to ROP16 protein using in silico tools can reduce the failure risk of the laboratory studies. This research provided an important basis for further studies and also developed an effective vaccine against acute and chronic toxoplasmosis by various strategies. Further studies are needed on the development of vaccines in vivo using ROP16 alone or in combination with other antigens in the future.

Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Bioinformatics; ROP16; Toxoplasma gondii; Vaccine

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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