Designing an efficient epitope-based vaccine conjugated with a molecular adjuvant against Bovine Babesiosis: A computational study

The current study was designed to introduce an efficient epitope-based vaccine against bovine babesiosis. Four immunogenic proteins of the Babesia. bovis including Trap, msa, bov57 and 12D3 were selected from VIOLIN database, then the proteins were used for prediction of B cell and T cell epitopes. The predicted epitopes along with HBHA protein as a molecular adjuvant were used to design an epitope-based vaccine. Antigenicity, allergenicity, physicochemical features, secondary structure and tertiary structure of the designed vaccine were evaluated by VaxiJen, AllerTOP, ProtParam, SOPMA and I-TASSER servers, respectively. A molecular docking strategy was conducted by ClusPro server to investigate interaction between the designed vaccine and TLR4/MD-2. Intermolecular hydrogen bonds of the interaction were assessed by the LigPlot software and the stability of the protein-protein complex was evaluated by iMODs server. The results revealed that the designed vaccine was an antigen, non-allergen and stable protein with a molecular weight of 36 kDa which could stably bind to TLR4/MD-2 through its HBHA domain. The results showed that the DNA sequence of the vaccine could be suitably cloned in the pET21a (+) vector. According to the results, the designed vaccine can be introduced as a proper candidate to prevent bovine babesiosis.