Epitope-based vaccine as a universal vaccination strategy against Toxoplasma gondii infection: A mini-review

Abstract

Despite the significant progress in the recent efforts toward developing an effective vaccine against toxoplasmosis, the search for new protective vaccination strategy still remains a challenge and elusive goal because it becomes the appropriate way to prevent the disease. Various experimental approaches in the past few years showed that developing a potential vaccine against the disease can be achievable. The combination of multi-epitopes expressing different stages of the parasite life cycle has become an optimal strategy for acquiring a potent, safe, and effective vaccine. Epitope-based vaccines have gained attention as alternative vaccine candidates due to their ability of inducing protective immune responses. This mini-review highlights the current status and the prospects of Toxoplasma gondii vaccine development along with the application of epitope-based vaccine in the future parasite immunization as a novel under development and evaluation strategy.

In-depth computational analysis of calcium-dependent protein kinase 3 ofToxoplasma gondiiprovides promising targets for vaccination

“…The advent of computer science made the in-silico sensing of candidate epitopes of a specific sequence possible, decreasing experimental costs and facilitating high-quality vaccine design [37][38][39]. Designing Neisseria meningitidis multi-epitope-based vaccine is a leader in this novel field of research, being extended for other pathogens, including parasitic protozoa [40][41][42].…”

A comparative genomics and immunoinformatics approach to identify epitope-based peptide vaccine candidates against bovine hemoplasmosis

“…Since bovine hemoplasmas show significant differences at genomic level and they impact in cattle health causing economic losses, we decided to perform an immune-informatic analysis to identify B-cell epitopes that could be used in the design of potential vaccines to prevent bovine hemoplasmosis. The development of vaccines based on this strategy has been successfully used to prevent some diseases in human and animals, including the cytoplasmic protein subolesin used to prevent infestations of tick Rhipicephalus microplus [37][38][39][40]. The immune-informatics analysis predicts several B-cell epitopes (Table 3), which could be used in the design of molecular detection methods and vaccines.…”

A Carbamoyl Phosphate Synthetase II (CPSII) Deletion Mutant of Toxoplasma gondii Induces Partial Protective Immunity in Mice

“…Vaccination is considered to be another effective method for preventing and controlling toxoplasmosis by providing specific antibodies and inducing cytokines directly against pathogens. Scientists have worked on developing vaccines against T. gondii using different strategies, such as recombinant protein- and DNA-based vaccines and dead parasites ( Foroutan et al, 2019 ; Hajissa et al, 2019 ; Wang et al, 2019 ). Mice immunized with T. gondii extracts or dead parasites may fail to develop robust immune response to reinfection with T. gondii ( Butcher and Denkers, 2002 ; Fox and Bzik, 2015 ).…”