Immunogenicity, antigenicity and epitope mapping of Salmonella InvH protein: An in silico study

Abstract

InvH is an indispensable part of T3SS-I and has a significant role in SPI-I mediated effector protein translocation. The InvH mutations have significant effects including reduced secretory and inflammatory responses that result from preventing the normal secretion of several proteins. Our team previous studies showed the capable ability of InvH to induce the humoral immune system to prevent almost all Salmonella strains infections. The current study aimed to determine all aspects of this protein using several bioinformatics tools and find the differences among all Salmonella strains. This data could pave the way for further studies about InvH protein and the production of an effective vaccine against Salmonella infections. InvH sequences for all Salmonella strains were obtained from GenBank and analyzed to determine physicochemical properties, B-Cell and T-Cell epitopes, and reliable structures. Results showed some minimal differences among Salmonella strains. B-Cell and T-Cell epitopes predicted by numerous software approved the ability of this protein to induce both humoral and cellular immune systems remarkably. This study provided a comprehensive data to determine all features of InvH protein and our results showed the ability of this protein to design a capable vaccine and the effect of amino acid changes on structure and physicochemical properties, and epitopes.