Abstract
Schistosomiasis, a neglected and most prevalenttropical diseases after malaria, have been a threat to people living in endemic areas. With regards to possible resistance to the popular drug (praziquantel) use for treatment of schistosomiasis, the need for a permanent vaccinating approach has been justified. This study uses an in silico approach to identify potential target vaccine candidate or T cell epitopes (T cell response activating epitope) for the treatment of schistosomiasis. This research therefore identified some candidate T cell epitopes from Sm23 protein of Schistosma mansoni using immunoinformatics tools. Nonameric epitopes like 85YMYAFFLVV93, 83MLYMYAFFL91, 8MRCLKSCVF16, 41SQYGDNLHK49 and 104VAVVYKDRI112 was found to exhibit strong binding affinity with some human leukocyte antigen (HLA). The predicted epitope was found to have no similarity with human proteome, a good attribute that is conferred on any good vaccine candidate. The predicted epitopes provide promising drug candidates and could be tested by wet laboratory as targeted vaccine against S. mansoni infection. Key words: Schistosomiasis, T-cell epitopes, human leukocyte antigen (HLA), vaccines.
Highlights
Schistosomiasis is well-known as a significant public health problem in tropical and sub-Sahara Africa countries, despite the existence of effective drugs against the parasite
The blast search revealed that the Sm23 protein is specific to S. mansoni, as the protein was not found in human beings
Interest was on S. mansoni, as there is no efficacious vaccine reported against this parasite
Summary
Schistosomiasis is well-known as a significant public health problem in tropical and sub-Sahara Africa countries, despite the existence of effective drugs against the parasite. An estimated 732 million persons are vulnerable to schistosoma infection worldwide in renowned transmission areas (Onile et al, 2014; Adenowo et al, 2015). In 2008, 17.5 million people were treated globally for schistosomiasis; 11.7 million of these are from sub-Saharan Africa only. 120 million individuals in sub-Saharan Africa have.
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