Leishmaniasis: a bioinformatic approach for novel antigenic proteins

FERNÁNDEZ DE ULLIVARRI M; ACUÑA L; BRACAMONTE ME; BASOMBRÍO MA; BELLOMIO A; MARCO JD

Mar del Plata

Congreso; SAIB LI Reunión Anual; 2015

SAIB

Leishmanisis comprises a group of parasitic diseases caused by the flagellated protozoan from genus Leishmania.Nowadays there are not effective vaccines or diagnosis methods against these diseases, thus it is necessary to searchfor new parasite antigens that are able to generate the adequate immune response. Bioinformatic programs forantigenic prediction are promising tools to facilitate this search. In this study we analyzed two L. braziliensis proteins(A and B) using epitope prediction programs for lymphocyte B (LB), T (LT) and MHC from Immune EpitopeDatabase (IEDB). The analysis demonstrated that A and B bear available epitopes able to be recognized by LB andLT-MHC. Protein A showed a higher epitope number and antigenicity for LT rather than for LB, and less IgGinductive epitopes in respect to protein B, pointing a potential cell response. Meanwhile, B exhibited epitopes related to the contrary effect, with potential to lead a humoral response, which would involve a Th2 path. These data corresponded to the empirical results observed for both proteins. Regarding these results we conclude that epitopeprediction software may be very useful for the pre-selection of novel antigenic proteins against leishmaniasis and other diseases.