Putative new combination vaccine candidates identified by reverse vaccinology and genomic approaches to control enteric pathogens

The pathogenic microorganisms that cause intestinal diseases can significantly jeopardize people's health. Currently, there are no authorized treatments or vaccinations available to combat the germs responsible for intestinal disease.

Using immunoinformatics, we developed a potent multi-epitope Combination (combo) vaccine versus Salmonella and enterohemorrhagic E. coli. The B and T cell epitopes were identified by performing a conservancy assessment, population coverage analysis, physicochemical attributes assessment, and secondary and tertiary structure assessment of the chosen antigenic polypeptide. The selection process for vaccine development included using several bioinformatics tools and approaches to finally choose two linear B-cell epitopes, five CTL epitopes, and two HTL epitopes.

The vaccine had strong immunogenicity, cytokine production, immunological properties, non-toxicity, non-allergenicity, stability, and potential efficacy against infections. Disulfide bonding, codon modification, and computational cloning were also used to enhance the stability and efficacy of expression in the host E. coli. The vaccine's structure has a strong affinity for the TLR4 ligand and is very durable, as shown by molecular docking and molecular modeling. The results of the immunological simulation demonstrated that both B and T cells had a heightened response to the vaccination component.

The comprehensive in silico analysis reveals that the proposed vaccine will likely elicit a robust immune response against pathogenic bacteria that cause intestinal diseases. Therefore, it is a promising option for further experimental testing.