مشخصات پژوهش

Mycoplasma genitalium and Mycoplasma hominis are two etiological agents of genital infections which are demonstrated to be significantly associated with male and female infertility. Development of effective diagnostic methods for the screening of asymptomatic patients and also new-generation vaccines would be efficient management strategies to control the spread of these pathogens. Designing novel recombinant proteins consisted of surface-exposed antigenic epitopes is the first step for the future development of effective diagnostic assays and vaccines against these infections. In this study, using immunoinformatics approaches, we designed a novel chimeric protein composed of the epitopes of two main non-host homologous antigenic surface proteins of Mycoplasma hominis and Mycoplasma genitalium. After screening non-host homologous potential antigenic surface proteins, P120 (GenBank: CAX37501.1) from Mycoplasma hominis and Adhesin P1 (protein ID: WP_010869366.1) from Mycoplasma genitalium were selected and were scanned for signal peptide sequence and transmembrane helices. B-cells and T-cells epitopes were predicted and the epitopes with the highest score were fused via protein linkers. The constructed multi-epitopes protein evaluated and validated in terms of toxicity, allergenicity, secondary and tertiary structure and physicochemical properties. Finally, the chimeric protein was docked successfully against MHC II and I. Overall, using in silico tools, we have designed a multi-epitope protein which was non-toxic, non-allergen, with top-ranked antigenic B-cell and T-cell epitopes potentially applicable for targeting Mycoplasma genitalium and Mycoplasma hominis Simultaneously. Further experimental investigations are required to confirm the potential application of this newly designed protein for development of effective serodiagnostic assays or vaccines against the genital infection.