Brucellosis is a zoonotic caused by the Brucella which is a well-known
infectious disease agent in domestic animals and if transmitted, it can cause
infection in humans. Because
brucellosis is contagious, its control depends on the eradication of the animal disease in farms. There are two
vaccines based on the killed and/or weakened bacteria against B. melitensis and B. abortus, but no
recombinant vaccine is available for preventing the disease. The present study was designed to develop a multi-
epitope vaccine against of B. melitensis and B. abortus using virB10, Omp31 and Omp16
antigens by the prediction of T lymphocytes, T cell cytotoxicity and IFN-γ
epitopes. 50S L7/L12
Ribosomal protein from Mycobacterium tuberculosis was used as a bovine TLR4 and TLR9 agonist. GPGPG, AAY and KK linkers were used as a linker. Brucella construct was well-integrated in the pET-32a Shuttle vector with BamHI and HindIII restriction
enzymes. The final construct contained 769
amino acids, that it was soluble
protein of about ∼82 kDa after expression in the Escherichia coli SHuffle host. Modeled
protein analysis based on the tertiary structure validation, molecular docking studies, molecular dynamics simulations results like RMSD, Gyration and RMSF as well as MM/
PBSA analysis showed that this
protein has a stable construct and is capable being in interaction with bovine TLR4 and TLR9. Analysis of the data obtained suggests that the proposed
vaccine can induce the immune response by stimulating T- and B-cells, and may be used for prevention and remedial purposes, against B. melitensis and B. abortus.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.