In silico investigation for evaluation of the potential of the SclA protein in Streptococcus pyogenes

Abstract

Background: Streptococcus pyogenes is an important pathogen that is associated with a range of infections in humans, and causes common and severe invasive diseases. Currently, antimicrobial therapy is the first choice for the treatment of S. pyogenes; however, the emergence of antimicrobial resistance and side effects of antibacterial drugs is increasing. Consequently, there is an increased demand for novel drug targets and vaccine design. Objectives: To develop an effective vaccine against Streptococcus pyogenes (group A streptococcus), we described a novel collagen-like surface protein of S. pyogenes which is important virulence factors Materials and Methods: In this study, we focused on the SclA protein of S. pyogenes and characterized it using bioinformatic tools to introduce it as a candidate novel drug as a candidate for use in vaccine design. The secondary structure was determined and the 3D structure was modeled using SWISS-MODEL workspace. The immune epitope database analysis (IEDB) resource was used to predict regions of SclA that are likely to be recognized as epitopes. Results: The SclA protein is present on the cell surface of the cell and has interact with a common ligand by its hypervariable NH2-terminal regions. The IEDB showed that the maximum peptide length that is likely to be predicted as an epitope is of 6 amino acids, from amino acid 26 to 31, with a score of 4.791. This epitope can be considered for use in Antibody and drug design. Conclusions: Data from this study about SclA were not sufficient and further studies are needed; however, the information here suggests that SclA could be a candidate for further research on the design of drugs and vaccines against S. pyogenes infections.