Exploring Klebsiella pneumoniae capsule polysaccharide proteins to design multiepitope subunit vaccine to fight against pneumonia

Background Klebsiella pneumoniae is an emerging human pathogen causing neonatal lung disease, catheter-associated infections, and nosocomial outbreaks with high fatality rates. Capsular polysaccharide (CPS) protein plays a major determinant in virulence and is considered as a promising target for vaccine development. Research Design and Methods In this study, we used immunoinformatic approaches to design a multi-peptide vaccine against K. pneumonia. The epitopes were selected through several immune filters, such as antigenicity, conservancy, nontoxicity, non-allergenicity, binding affinity to HLA alleles, overlapping epitopes, and peptides having common epitopes. Results Finally, a construct comprising 2 B-Cell, 8 CTL, 2 HTL epitopes, along with adjuvant, linkers was designed. Peptide-HLA interaction analysis showed strong binding of these epitopes with several common HLA molecules. The in silico immune simulation and population coverage analysis of the vaccine showed its potential to evoke strong immune responses.. Further, the interaction between vaccine and immune was evaluated by docking and simulation, revealing high affinity and complex stability. Codon adaptation and in silico cloning revealed higher expression of vaccine in E. coli K12 expression system. Conclusions Conclusively, the findings of the present study suggest that the designed novel multi-epitopic vaccine holds potential for further experimental validation against the pathogen.

Automated summary

This study designed a multi-peptide vaccine against Klebsiella pneumoniae using immunoinformatic approaches. The vaccine showed strong binding to HLA molecules and potential to evoke strong immune responses. It holds promise for further experimental validation against the pathogen.