Epitope prediction of malarial MSP-1 protein of plasmodium sp. using in silico method

Abstract

Due to its pivotal function in parasite adherence to the RBC membrane during erythrocyte invasion, Msp1 represents a potential vaccine candidate. Three or four fragments of MSP1 are produced during the proteolytic maturation process, and these fragments stay together as a complex on the cell surface. Msp1 fragments have been investigated as potential vaccine candidate, and malaria antibody immunoassays have made use of the fragmented polypeptide, which exhibits a considerable degree of intra-species conservation. Because of its polymorphism, Msp1 is also useful in strain differentiation and carries a crucial genetic marker. To comprehend genetic variation among species and find epitopes for the development of a disease vaccine, Msp1 needs to be investigated. The preliminary investigation on the evolutionary history using the Maximum Likelihood method and the General Time Reversible model (GTR) models were used. The phylogenetic relationship of the MSP1 gene was inferred and it represents the level of similarity between the MSP1 gene of Plasmodium species from various locations in South-East Asia. The top 30 MHC class II epitopic regions were predicted using Bepipred server with epitope mean score above 0.05.