Novel multi-epitope vaccine design against Mycobacterium tuberculosis: An Immunoinformatics strategy

Vaccination has proven to be an effective strategy for the prevention of tuberculosis (TB). Interestingly, peptide-based vaccines that elicit a specific immunological response are currently being explored as alternatives to the BCG vaccine. Thus, the present study aimed to design a novel, efficacious peptide-based vaccine against tuberculosis targeting Rv1115, a membrane protein and a potent stimulator of INF-gamma. Initially, the immunodominant CD4+, CD8+ and B cell epitopes of Rv1115 were identified and scrutinized based on their propensity to evoke immunological responses. The propitious epitopes were then combined using the appropriate linkers (EAAAK, AAY, KK and GPGPG) and adjuvant (CobT) for the chimeric vaccine design. Further, the designed chimeric vaccine was subjected to 3D structure modelling, refinement and validation. Finally, the modelled vaccine construct was used for protein-protein docking studies with toll-like receptors 3 and 4 (TLR-3 and TLR-4) followed by immune simulation analysis and in silico cloning. Overall, the immunoinformatic results suggest that the developed chimeric vaccine could elicit robust immune responses and can be employed as an efficient preventative therapy for tuberculosis.