Finding epitopes of Klebsiella pneumoniae outer membrane protein-K17 (OMPK17) and introducing a 25-mer peptide of it as a vaccine candidate

Parivash Ranjbarian; Farjam Goudarzi; Alisha Akya; Hana Heidarinia; Alireza Farasat; Mosayeb Rostamian

doi:10.1007/s11756-023-01371-0

Finding epitopes of Klebsiella pneumoniae outer membrane protein-K17 (OMPK17) and introducing a 25-mer peptide of it as a vaccine candidate

Biologia (Bratisl). 2023 Mar 14:1-11. doi: 10.1007/s11756-023-01371-0. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Parivash Ranjbarian¹, Farjam Goudarzi², Alisha Akya³, Hana Heidarinia⁴, Alireza Farasat⁵, Mosayeb Rostamian³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.
² Regenerative Medicine Research Center, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.
³ Infectious Diseases Research Center, Health Institute, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Parastar Blvd, Imam Reza Hospital, Kermanshah, 6714415333 Iran.
⁴ Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Shahrekord Branch of Islamic Azad University, Shahrekord, Iran.
⁵ Monoclonal Antibody Research Center, Avicenna Research Institute, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

No approved vaccine exists for Klebsiella pneumoniae yet. Outer membrane protein-K17 (OMPK17) is involved in K. pneumoniae pathogenesis. No information has been found about OMPK17 dominant epitopes in the literature. Therefore, this study aimed to predict both T cell and B cell epitopes of K. pneumoniae OMPK17 via immunoinformatics approaches. Both T cell (class-I and II) and B cell (linear and discontinuous) epitopes of OMPK17 were predicted. Several screening analyses were performed including clustering, immunogenicity, human similarity, toxicity, allergenicity, conservancy, docking, and structural/physicochemical suitability. The results showed that some regions of OMPK17 have more potential as epitopes. The most possible epitopes were found via several analyses including the selection of higher-scoring epitopes, the epitopes predicted with more tools, more immunogenic epitopes, the epitopes capable of producing interferon-gamma, the epitopes with more dissimilarity to human peptides, and non-toxic and non-allergenic epitopes. By comparing the best T cell and B cell epitopes, we reached a 25-mer peptide containing both T cell (class-I and class-II) and B cell (linear) epitopes and comprising appropriate physicochemical characteristics that are required for K. pneumoniae vaccine development. The in vitro/in vivo study of this peptide is recommended to clarify its actual efficiency and efficacy.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11756-023-01371-0.

Keywords: Epitope; Immunoinformatics; Klebsiella pneumoniae; Outer membrane protein-K17; Physicochemical characteristics.

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