Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 8, 2025
Analysis of HBV-Specific CD4 T-cell Responses and Identification of HLA-DR-Restricted CD4 T-Cell Epitopes Based on a Peptide Matrix
Published on: October 20, 2021
Prediction and analyses of HLA-II restricted Mycobacterium tuberculosis CD4+ T cell epitopes in the Chinese
Zaixing Jia1,2, Wenping Gong1, Yan Liang1
1Tuberculosis Prevention and Control Key Laboratory/Beijing Key Laboratory of New Techniques of Tuberculosis Diagnosis and Treatment, Institute for Tuberculosis Research, 8th Medical Center, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Haidian District, Beijing, China.
The Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine has been used to prevent tuberculosis (TB), but it cannot prevent adults against TB. The Mycobacterium tuberculosis Beijing strain is the most popular strain in China, but no vaccine is designed for the Beijing strain. It is vital to design a multiepitopes-based vaccine against the Beijing strain for the Chinese population. The bioinformatics tools were used to predict CD4+ T-cell epitopes in five protective antigens based on the Chinese population-specific alleles. The antigenicity, allergenicity, toxicity, IFN-γ level, population coverage, and three-dimensional structure were predicted using Vaxijen, AllerTOP, ToxinPred, IFN-γ epitope server, IEDB, and I-TASSER, respectively. One-hundred one promiscuous epitopes were obtained from Rv1813c, Rv2608, Rv3131, and Rv3628 proteins. After screening with antigenicity, allergenicity, toxicity, and IFN-γ level, seven epitopes from Rv2608 and Rv3131 proteins were selected to be vaccine candidates. Further study determined their three-dimensional structure and the coverage in the Chinese population as high as 99%. Our study predicted seven CD4+ T-cell dominant epitopes from the proteins Rv2608 and Rv3131 of M. tuberculosis Beijing strain for the first time, which may provide a basis for improving the design of multiepitopes-based vaccines for TB.
The Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine has been used to prevent tuberculosis (TB), but it cannot prevent adults against TB. The Mycobacterium tuberculosis Beijing strain is the most popular strain in China, but no vaccine is designed for the Beijing strain. It is vital to design a multiepitopes-based vaccine against the Beijing strain for the Chinese population. The bioinformatics tools were used to predict CD4+ T-cell epitopes in five protective antigens based on the Chinese population-specific alleles. The antigenicity, allergenicity, toxicity, IFN-γ level, population coverage, and three-dimensional structure were predicted using Vaxijen, AllerTOP, ToxinPred, IFN-γ epitope server, IEDB, and I-TASSER, respectively. One-hundred one promiscuous epitopes were obtained from Rv1813c, Rv2608, Rv3131, and Rv3628 proteins. After screening with antigenicity, allergenicity, toxicity, and IFN-γ level, seven epitopes from Rv2608 and Rv3131 proteins were selected to be vaccine candidates. Further study determined their three-dimensional structure and the coverage in the Chinese population as high as 99%. Our study predicted seven CD4+ T-cell dominant epitopes from the proteins Rv2608 and Rv3131 of M. tuberculosis Beijing strain for the first time, which may provide a basis for improving the design of multiepitopes-based vaccines for TB.
