Structure to function analysis with antigenic characterization of a hypothetical protein, HPAG1_0576 from Helicobacter pylori HPAG1

Helicobacter pylori, a unique gastric pathogen causing chronic inflammation in the gastric mucosa with a possibility to develop gastric cancer has one-third of its proteins still uncharacterized. In this study, a hypothetical protein (HP) namely HPAG1_0576 from H. pylori HPAG1 was chosen for detailed computational analysis of its structural, functional and epitopic properties. The primary, secondary and 3D structure/model of the selected HP was constructed. Then refinement and structure validation were done, which indicated a good quality of the newly constructed model. ProFunc and STRING suggested that HPAG1_0576 shares 98% identity with a carcinogenic factor, TNF-α inducing protein (Tip-α) of H. pylori. IEDB immunoinformatics tool predicted VLMLQACTCPNTSQRNS from position 19-35 as most potential B-cell linear epitope and SFLKSKQL from position 5-12 as most potent conformational epitope. Alternatively, FALVRARGF and FLCGLGVLM were predicted as most immunogenic CD8+ and CD4+ T-cell epitopes respectively. At the same time findings of IFN epitope tool suggests that, HPAG1_0576 had a great potential to evoke interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) mediated immune response. However, this experiment is a primary approach for in silico vaccine designing from a HP, findings of this study will provide significant insights in further investigations and will assist in identifying new drug targets/vaccine candidates.