B and t-cell epitopes based vaccine design in api m3 allergen of apis mellifera: An immunoinformatics approach

Abstract

Background and Objective: Api m3 is one of the major allergen in honeybee allergen family. Honeybee allergens can cause severe anaphylaxis, even leads to death. Being an economically important insect, human keeps close contact with it and often becomes life threatening not only in beekeepers but also for mass population. Therefore, vaccination can be a preferred method to counter this issue. This study aimed to identify effective epitopes for successful vaccine design. Methodology: In current study, immunoinformatics approach was applied to find out potential B-cell and T-cell epitopes of Api m3. Results: In quest of this, physicochemical properties of Api m3 were analyzed and found relative thermostable nature of Api m3 allergen and only 10.46% of the allergen consisted of beta turn region. Five MHC class I, T-cell epitopes were identified and through scrutiny of these T-cell epitopes led to find out YTEESVSAL as the best epitope. For MHC class II, T-cell epitopes YPKDPYLYYDFYPLE and GGPLLRIFTKHMLDV were found as most prominent T-cell epitopes of Api m3 allergen. Linear B-cell epitopes were predicted by using BCPREDS, ABCpred, BepiPred and Bcepred and results were validated by means of hydrophilicity, antigenicity, surface accessibility, flexibility and beta turn region. Current study also revealed that GDRIPDEKN and PHVPEYSSS, two 9 mer peptides could be the most effective B-cell epitopes of Api m3. Conclusion: These results can be very effective in designing potential therapeutics and venom allergen diagnosis of honeybee.