Novel dual-pathogen multi-epitope mRNA vaccine development for Brucella melitensis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis in...

Brucellosis and Tuberculosis, both of which are contagious diseases, have presented significant challenges to global public health security in recent years. Delayed treatment can exacerbate the conditions, jeopardizing patient lives. Currently, no vaccine has been approved to prevent these two diseases simultaneously. In contrast to traditional vaccines, mRNA vaccines offer advantages such as high efficacy, rapid development, and low cost, and their applications are gradually expanding. This study aims to develop multi-epitope mRNA vaccines argeting Brucella melitensis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv (L4 strain) utilizing immunoinformatics approaches. The proteins Omp25, Omp31, MPT70, and MPT83 from the specified bacteria were selected to identify the predominant T- and B-cell epitopes for immunological analysis. Following a comprehensive evaluation, a vaccine was developed using helper T lymphocyte epitopes, cytotoxic T lymphocyte epitopes, linear B-cell epitopes, and conformational B-cell epitopes. It has been demonstrated that multi-epitope mRNA vaccines exhibit increased antigenicity, non-allergenicity, solubility, and high stability. The findings from molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation revealed a robust and enduring binding affinity between multi-epitope peptides mRNA vaccines and TLR4. Ultimately, Subsequently, following the optimization of the nucleotide sequence, the codon adaptation index was calculated to be 1.0, along with an average GC content of 54.01%. This indicates that the multi-epitope mRNA vaccines exhibit potential for efficient expression within the Escherichia coli(E. coli) host. Analysis through immune modeling indicates that following administration of the vaccine, there may be variation in immunecell populations associated with both innate and adaptive immune reactions. These types encompass helper T lymphocytes (HTL), cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL), regulatory T lymphocytes, natural killer cells, dendritic cells and various immune cell subsets. In summary, the results suggest that the newly created multi-epitope mRNA vaccine exhibits favorable attributes, offering novel insights and a conceptual foundation for potential progress in vaccine development.