In silico screening of epitopes as potential vaccine candidates against pathogenic Acinetobacter baumannii.

Background: Multidrug-resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) poses a pressing threat to global healthcare settings, as most antibiotics are ineffective against this nosocomial pathogen. Vaccines, particularly peptide-based vaccines, offer a promising and effective strategy to deal with these infections.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the potential of epitopes derived from the OmpA protein of A. baumannii as vaccine candidates for combating this pathogen.

Methods: This study employed advanced bioinformatic tools to identify potential epitopes for vaccine candidates against A. baumannii infections. IEDB and SYFPEITHI were used to identify T-cell epitopes of A. baumannii OmpA protein. The epitopes were filtered based on score, clustering, human similarity, immunogenicity, cytokine response, and safety. Epitopes with high scores and both class-I and class-II sites were selected. Three epitopes were chosen for molecular docking and physicochemical evaluation as potential vaccine candidates.

Results: Three epitopes (EP1, EP2, and EP3) derived from A. baumannii OmpA were found to effectively bind with specific human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles. These epitopes have shown promising potential to elicit both cellular and humoral immune responses. Their physicochemical and immunological properties were thoroughly evaluated, indicating strong antigenic potential, non-toxicity, lack of allergenic properties, good binding affinity, and wide population coverage. The epitopes' two- and three-dimensional structures were predicted, and they were docked with their respective HLA alleles to assess their ability to stimulate innate immune responses. The predicted epitopes and HLA-allelic complexes exhibited excellent binding affinity, optimal Root Mean Square Deviation (RMSD) values, favorable physicochemical properties, and high-quality structural characteristics.

Conclusions: This study identified epitopes that hold promise as potential solutions for combating multidrug-resistant A. baumannii, pending validation through wet lab experiments and clinical trials.