Examination of antigenic proteins of Trypanosoma cruzi to fabricate an epitope-based subunit vaccine by exploiting epitope mapping mechanism

Chagas disease is a protozoan parasitic disease caused by Trypanosoma cruzi. This injurious disease spread by the circulation of the blood sucking triatomine insects and transmitted to humans. Chagas disease is endemic in Latin America and also known as American trypanosomasis. Currently, 7 million people are infected by T. cruzi infection and about 22,000 death cases were reported per year throughout the Americas. Various immunization approaches against T. cruzi infection have been examined and some of the developed vaccine showed efficacy in animal models but there is no effective and safe vaccines for humans have been developed yet. Since, the drug resistance is increasing day by day because the developed drug (nifurtimox and benznidazole) to control T. cruzi infection, failed to activate a prodrug and still no drug and vaccine have been established. To control the infection of chagas disease, here in this study we use immunoinformatics method to design multi-epitope subunit vaccine against T. cruzi infection. Moreover, on the basis of immunogenicity B and T cell epitopes were evaluated. The allergenicity, antigenicity was predicted to ensure the safety of vaccine constructs whereas, the physiochemical property showing the stable nature of final vaccine model. Further, molecular docking was performed to optimize the interaction between TLR-2 and TLR-4 (receptor) and vaccine model (ligand) complex. Molecular dynamics simulation was performed to evaluate the energy minimization; RMSD and RMSF plot which confirm the stability of TLR-2 and TLR-4 (receptor) present on immune cells and vaccine model (ligand) complex. This study needed the experimental validation for the safety and immunogenic behavior of designed vaccine protein and it may be helpful in future to control T. cruzi infection.