Development of computer methods in molecular biology and fast growth of microbial genomics data enabled new approach based on selecting in silico antigenic components to design vaccine constructs. It is expected that application of this technology will eliminate side effects of new vaccines and reduce the time consumption and financial expenses. The bioinformatics methods of sequence analysis are used to reveal the most prospective proteins or protein fragments of infectious agents as candidates for vaccine design. In these studies the specialized molecular immunology databases are widely used. The new approach ("Reverse vaccinology") could help in designing vaccines against diseases where traditional methods are not successful, e.g. when the viral genome reveals the extreme variability and permanent changes of antigenic properties that make difficulties for selection of molecular targets for medicines and candidate vaccines. A number of informational resources are already designed to collect and provide genomic data on certain microbes or viruses. The peculiarity of such resources is presentation of data, characterizing the different genomic variants of the same infectious agents. These structural data coupled with information on functional/immune features and software tools have to compose basis for constructing a new generation of vaccines against "common" and new infections such as AIDS, Hepatitis C, and SARS. The approaches published in literature, as well as the authors' original results are discussed.
Bacterial secondary metabolites display diverse biological activities, thus having potential as pharmacological agents. Although most of these compounds are discovered by random screening, it is possible to predict and re-design their structures based on the information on their biosynthetic pathways. Biosynthesis of macrolides, governed by modular polyketide synthases (PKS), obeys certain rules, which can be simulated in silico. PKS mode of action theoretically allows for a huge number of macrolides to be produced upon combinatorial manipulation. Since engineering of all possible PKS variants is practically unfeasible, we created Biogenerator software, which simulates manipulation of PKS and generates virtual libraries of macrolides. These libraries can be screened by computer-aided prediction of biological activities, as exemplified by analysis of erythromycin and macrolactin libraries. This approach allows rational selection of macrolides with desired biological activities and provides instructions regarding the composition of the PKS gene clusters necessary for microbial production of such molecules.
Heparan sulphate is one of the candidate receptors for hepatitis C virus (HCV). Envelope glycoproteins of HCV have been proposed to be responsible for recognition and binding with cell receptors. They are characterized by great genetic polymorphism. In this study the mapping of regions with glycosaminoglycan-binding properties within HCV envelope proteins has been undertaken. We prepared a set of overlapping peptides corresponding to conserved regions of these envelope proteins and analysed them by solid phase heparin-binding assay. The search for established glycosaminoglycan-binding motifs in the HCV envelope proteins showed the absence of the sites corresponding to the glycosaminoglycan-binding patterns in consensus sequence. We identified one highly conserved and two less conserved heparin-binding sequences within the envelope protein E2 based on solid phase assay results. We did not find any differences in binding efficiency of these peptides with heparin, heparan sulphate or dextran sulphate. Our data supported the specific association between HCV envelope protein E2 and cell surface glycosaminoglycans. We hypothesize that identified regions from E2 can contribute to HCV binding to cell surface glycosaminoglycans.
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