Ever increasing propensity of antibiotic resistance among pathogenic bacteria raises the demand for the development of novel therapeutic agents to control this grave problem. Advances in the field of bioinformatics, genomics, and proteomics have greatly facilitated the discovery of alternative drugs by swift identification of new drug targets. In the present study, we employed comparative genomics and metabolic pathway analysis with an aim of identifying therapeutic targets in Mycoplasma hominis. Our study has revealed 40 annotated metabolic pathways, including five unique pathways of M. hominis. Our study also identified 179 essential proteins, including 59 proteins having no similarity with human proteins. Further filtering by molecular weight, subcellular localization, functional analysis, and protein network interaction, we identified 57 putative candidates for which new drugs can be developed. Druggability analysis for each of the identified targets has prioritized 16 proteins as suitable for potential drug development.

Nipah virus and Hendra virus, two members of the genus Henipavirus, are newly emerging zoonotic pathogens which cause acute respiratory illness and severe encephalitis in human. Lack of the effective antiviral therapy endorses the urgency for the development of vaccine against these deadly viruses. In this study, we employed various computational approaches to identify epitopes which has the potential for vaccine development. By analyzing the immune parameters of the conserved sequences of G glycoprotein using various databases and bioinformatics tools, we identified two potential epitopes which may be used as peptide vaccines. Using different B cell epitope prediction servers, four highly similar B cell epitopes were identified. Immunoinformatics analyses revealed that LAEDDTNAQKT is a highly flexible and accessible B-cell epitope to antibody. Highly similar putative CTL epitopes were analyzed for their binding with the HLA-C 12*03 molecule. Docking simulation assay revealed that LTDKIGTEI has significantly lower binding energy, which bolstered its potential as epitope-based vaccine design. Finally, cytotoxicity analysis has also justified their potential as promising epitope-based vaccine candidate. In sum, our computational analysis indicates that either LAEDDTNAQKT or LTDKIGTEI epitope holds a promise for the development of universal vaccine against all kinds of pathogenic Henipavirus. Further in vivo and in vitro studies are necessary to validate the obtained findings.

<p>Hantaan virus (HNTV) is an etiological agent of potentially fatal hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS). The virus infects a large number of patients annually with a mortality rate more than 10%. However, no treatment option or vaccine is available against the virus. Between two envelope proteins, HNTV glycoprotein G2 has higher antigenicity making it a better target for vaccine development. However, 3-D structure of the protein is not available which is important for identifying epitopes that are essential for vaccine design. Therefore, this study was designed to predict a structural model of glycoprotein G2 and to predict peptide sequences for vaccine development containing conserved epitopes within the structure. Many of the physio-chemical and structural properties including secondary structure and di-sulfide linkage of the protein were predicted using a number of computational tools. <strong></strong>The 3D structure of the protein was modeled using I-TASSER online tool. The quality of the predicted models was evaluated with Ramachandran plot and Z-score. The structural and sequence information was used to predict B-cell and T-cell epitopes on glycoprotein G2.  Using various bio-informatics and immuno-informatics tools, a total of 9 continuous B-cell and 22 T-cell epitopes were predicted having significant antigenicity. These antigenic epitopes were further analyzed for conservation and a total of 4 B-cells and 8 T-cell epitopes were found to be highly conserved in sequences from diverse origins. These epitopes revealed by the current study are recognized by immune system to protect host from HNTV infection can be potential targets for vaccine development.</p>

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