{"title":"Design and in silico evaluation of a novel chimeric protein vaccine candidate against Salmonella Typhi","authors":"Mohsen Bidar Ajerloo , Abbas Hajizade , Shahram Nazarian , Kavyan Khalili","doi":"10.1016/j.mimet.2025.107268","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Typhoid fever, caused by <em>Salmonella enteritidis serovar</em> Typhi <em>(S.</em> Typhi<em>)</em>, remains a significant global health challenge, especially in regions with poor sanitation. Despite available vaccines, limitations such as short-term efficacy and variable immune responses necessitate novel strategies. Here, we designed a multi-protein chimeric protein vaccine targeting <em>S.</em> Typhi by integrating three key antigens: SteD (an immune-evasion transmembrane effector) (whole protein), flagellin (D1 domain), and STIV (<em>Salmonella</em> Typhi invasion protein) (whole protein). Proteins were linked via rigid EAAAK linkers to enhance stability. The construct exhibited high antigenicity (VaxiJen score:0. 9228) and favorable physicochemical properties (ProtParam), with non-allergenic (AlgPred) and non-toxic (ToxinPred) profiles. Structural analysis revealed a stable 3D model (I-TASSER/Phyre2/RaptorX), validated by Ramachandran plot (>90 % favored regions), ProSA z-score of −5.54, and ERRAT. B-cell and T-cell epitopes predicted by IEDB, ABCPred, and Discotope 2.0 demonstrated strong binding to HLA alleles. Molecular docking confirmed robust interactions with TLR-4 (PDB:<span><span>2Z63</span><svg><path></path></svg></span><strong>)</strong> and TLR-5 (PDB:<span><span>3V44</span><svg><path></path></svg></span><strong>)</strong>, while 100-ns MD simulations (NAMD/VMD) affirmed complex stability (low RMSD/RMSF). Immune simulations (C-ImmSim) predicted potent humoral and cellular responses, including elevated IgG/IgM and Th1/Th2 cytokines. This in silico study proposes a promising vaccine candidate with high theoretical immunogenicity and structural integrity, warranting further in vitro and in vivo validation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16409,"journal":{"name":"Journal of microbiological methods","volume":"238 ","pages":"Article 107268"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of microbiological methods","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167701225001848","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"BIOCHEMICAL RESEARCH METHODS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Typhoid fever, caused by Salmonella enteritidis serovar Typhi (S. Typhi), remains a significant global health challenge, especially in regions with poor sanitation. Despite available vaccines, limitations such as short-term efficacy and variable immune responses necessitate novel strategies. Here, we designed a multi-protein chimeric protein vaccine targeting S. Typhi by integrating three key antigens: SteD (an immune-evasion transmembrane effector) (whole protein), flagellin (D1 domain), and STIV (Salmonella Typhi invasion protein) (whole protein). Proteins were linked via rigid EAAAK linkers to enhance stability. The construct exhibited high antigenicity (VaxiJen score:0. 9228) and favorable physicochemical properties (ProtParam), with non-allergenic (AlgPred) and non-toxic (ToxinPred) profiles. Structural analysis revealed a stable 3D model (I-TASSER/Phyre2/RaptorX), validated by Ramachandran plot (>90 % favored regions), ProSA z-score of −5.54, and ERRAT. B-cell and T-cell epitopes predicted by IEDB, ABCPred, and Discotope 2.0 demonstrated strong binding to HLA alleles. Molecular docking confirmed robust interactions with TLR-4 (PDB:2Z63) and TLR-5 (PDB:3V44), while 100-ns MD simulations (NAMD/VMD) affirmed complex stability (low RMSD/RMSF). Immune simulations (C-ImmSim) predicted potent humoral and cellular responses, including elevated IgG/IgM and Th1/Th2 cytokines. This in silico study proposes a promising vaccine candidate with high theoretical immunogenicity and structural integrity, warranting further in vitro and in vivo validation.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Microbiological Methods publishes scholarly and original articles, notes and review articles. These articles must include novel and/or state-of-the-art methods, or significant improvements to existing methods. Novel and innovative applications of current methods that are validated and useful will also be published. JMM strives for scholarship, innovation and excellence. This demands scientific rigour, the best available methods and technologies, correctly replicated experiments/tests, the inclusion of proper controls, calibrations, and the correct statistical analysis. The presentation of the data must support the interpretation of the method/approach.
All aspects of microbiology are covered, except virology. These include agricultural microbiology, applied and environmental microbiology, bioassays, bioinformatics, biotechnology, biochemical microbiology, clinical microbiology, diagnostics, food monitoring and quality control microbiology, microbial genetics and genomics, geomicrobiology, microbiome methods regardless of habitat, high through-put sequencing methods and analysis, microbial pathogenesis and host responses, metabolomics, metagenomics, metaproteomics, microbial ecology and diversity, microbial physiology, microbial ultra-structure, microscopic and imaging methods, molecular microbiology, mycology, novel mathematical microbiology and modelling, parasitology, plant-microbe interactions, protein markers/profiles, proteomics, pyrosequencing, public health microbiology, radioisotopes applied to microbiology, robotics applied to microbiological methods,rumen microbiology, microbiological methods for space missions and extreme environments, sampling methods and samplers, soil and sediment microbiology, transcriptomics, veterinary microbiology, sero-diagnostics and typing/identification.