Melo de Assis BL, Viana Vieira R, Rudenco Gomes Palma IT, Bertolini Coutinho M, de Moura J, Peiter GC, Teixeira KN. Three-dimensional models of antigens with serodiagnostic potential for leprosy: An in silico study. World J Clin Infect Dis 2023; 13(1): 1-10 [DOI: 10.5495/wjcid.v13.i1.1]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Kádima Nayara Teixeira, PhD, Professor, Campus Toledo, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Avenida Max Planck, 3796 , Toledo 85.919-899, Paraná, Brazil. kadimateixeira@ufpr.br
Research Domain of This Article
Immunology
Article-Type of This Article
Basic Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Infect Dis. Feb 28, 2023; 13(1): 1-10 Published online Feb 28, 2023. doi: 10.5495/wjcid.v13.i1.1
Three-dimensional models of antigens with serodiagnostic potential for leprosy: An in silico study
Bianca Luiza Melo de Assis, Rafaela Viana Vieira, Ian Theodoro Rudenco Gomes Palma, Matheus Bertolini Coutinho, Juliana de Moura, Gabrielle Caroline Peiter, Kádima Nayara Teixeira
Bianca Luiza Melo de Assis, Rafaela Viana Vieira, Ian Theodoro Rudenco Gomes Palma, Matheus Bertolini Coutinho, Kádima Nayara Teixeira, Campus Toledo, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Toledo 85.919-899, Paraná, Brazil
Juliana de Moura, Departamento de Patologia Básica, Universidade Federal do Paraná - Setor de Ciências Biológicas, Curitiba 81.531-980, Paraná, Brazil
Gabrielle Caroline Peiter, Kádima Nayara Teixeira, Programa Multicêntrico de Pós-graduação em Bioquímica e Biologia Molecular - Setor Palotina, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Palotina 85.950-000, Paraná, Brazil
Author contributions: de Moura JF, Peiter GC, and Teixeira KN designed and coordinated the study and interpreted the data; Melo de Assis BL carried out the experiments, and acquired and analyzed the data; Vieira RV, Coutinho BM, and Palma ITRG reviewed the literature and wrote the manuscript; Teixeira KN reviewed the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Research Sector Committee of Campus Toledo - Universidade Federal do Paraná.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no potential conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Kádima Nayara Teixeira, PhD, Professor, Campus Toledo, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Avenida Max Planck, 3796 , Toledo 85.919-899, Paraná, Brazil. kadimateixeira@ufpr.br
Received: August 28, 2022 Peer-review started: August 28, 2022 First decision: December 13, 2022 Revised: December 28, 2022 Accepted: February 1, 2023 Article in press: February 1, 2023 Published online: February 28, 2023 Processing time: 182 Days and 11.8 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
Our research group has been trying to use bioinformatics tools as allies of experimental research in order to corroborate and confirm data. So far the results have been very satisfactory and have saved research time and financial costs.
Research motivation
This study was motivated by our group's previous studies on diagnostic tests for leprosy. Promising and relevant data have been achieved in experimental research with patient serum and have been confirmed by bioinformatics analyses. This study predicting Mycobacterium leprae (M. leprae) antigen models is only one step towards future research on the development of more sensitive diagnostic tests for leprosy.
Research objectives
The aim of this study was to provide reliable three-dimensional structure models for the analysis of immunodominant epitopes that can be tested later, in the form of synthetic peptides, as possible candidates for the development of diagnostic tests that can detect patients with paucibacillary leprosy. The structure and location of the epitope within the antigen structure is important to understand the behavior of the humoral response of patients.
Research methods
The methods used were classic methods of bioinformatics, which were well established and had proven reliability. Comparative modeling is the simplest methodology of molecular modeling, which was used in this study due to antigen conditions. Once the input data is well filtered, the results are very satisfactory, which can be proven by the similarity of the structures with the homologous ones.
Research results
The results obtained in this study were considered of good quality; no important parameters, such as steric impediment and lack of stability, were observed. Therefore, the structure models of M. leprae antigens are satisfactory for the research of immunodominant epitopes.
Research conclusions
The structural models of M. leprae antigens are considered high-quality models by validation parameters and can be used for the mapping of epitope candidates for serodiagnostic tests.
Research perspectives
The research perspective is to continue the study and map the epitopes and evaluate them through experimental studies.
