Gomase VS, Chitlange NR, Sherkhane AS, Changbhale SS and Kale KV
Wuchereria bancrofti is a threadlike nematode one of the causative worm of lymphatic filariasis in which the
lymphatic and genital organs get disabled either temporarily or permanently; till date no effective drug or vaccine has been discovered to treat lymphatic filariasis. In this analysis we have predicted antigenic peptides from Wuchereria bancrofti troponin protein for synthetic peptide vaccine design against lymphatic filariasis because with a single protein subunit immune response can be generated in large population. Analysis shows predicted epitopes of Wuchereria bancrofti troponin protein are important determinant for protection against lymphatic filariasis. In this assay we have analysed the binding affinity of Wuchereria bancrofti troponin protein having 136 amino acids, which shows 128 nonamers. In this research work, we predicted CTL-epitopes by two different methods namely SVM (Support Vector Machine) and ANN (Artificial Neural Network), SVM based prediction shown sixteen valid epitopes having optimal score of 1.129 at cut off 0.36 whereas ANN based prediction shown thirty-one valid epitopes having optimal score of 1.000 at cut off 0.51. We also predicted cascade SVM based TAP binders and four potential antigenic epitopes as, 31-LRKLIRK-37, 49-DEFCALVYTVANT-61, 87-SRPTLKALLKE-97, 108-EAAVDE-113 (optimal propensity 1.223) predicted on the basis of highest local hydrophilicity; in addition to this we also have experimentally predicted tertiary structure of the two longest potential epitopes those can aid our understanding in
sequence-structure-function relationship of Wuchereria bancrofti troponin protein towards synthetic peptide vaccine design. Thus a small fragment of troponin protein can produce immune response against activity of Wuchereria bancrofti. This approach can be applied for designing subunit and synthetic peptide vaccines