Discovering a vaccine against neosporosis using computers: is it feasible?

• We examine the feasibility of in silico vaccine discovery against Neospora caninum.
• We provide recent N. caninum factors shaping an in silico approach valid to apicomplexans.
• We cover immunology, reverse vaccinology, prediction programs, and vaccine delivery.
• No consensus on type of vaccine to predict computationally is the foremost challenge.

A vaccine is urgently needed to prevent cattle neosporosis. This infectious disease is caused by the parasite Neospora caninum, a complex biological system with multifaceted life cycles. An in silico vaccine discovery approach attempts to transform digital abstractions of this system into adequate knowledge to predict candidates. Researchers need current information to implement such an approach, such as understanding evasion mechanisms of the immune system, type of immune response to elicit, availability of data and prediction programs, and statistical models to analyze predictions. Taken together, an in silico approach involves assembly of an intricate jigsaw of interdisciplinary and interdependent knowledge. In this review, we focus on the approach influencing vaccine development against Neospora caninum, which can be generalized to other pathogenic apicomplexans.