Immunoinformatics Prediction of Epitope Based Peptide Vaccine against Clostridium perfringens Fructose Bisphosphate Aldolase Protein

Clostridium perfringens is a member of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) microbial community for both diseased and healthy humans and animals. Also, this bacterium is responsible for around 5%-15% of all circumstances of antibiotic-associated diarrhea, which develops in 5%-40% of all patients receiving antibiotic therapy. In addition, it causes enteritis necroticans; an often-fatal human disease. C. perfringens is clear and defined the underlying factors responsible for specific aspects of pathology remains uncertain. This study predicts an effective epitope-based vaccine against fructose 1,6-biphosphate aldolase (FBA) enzyme of Clostridium perfringens using immunoinformatics tools. The sequences were retrieved from NCBI and several prediction tests were conducted to analyze possible epitopes for B-cell, T-cell MHC class I and II. Tertiary structure of the most promising epitopes was obtained. 48 epitopes showed high binding affinity for B-cells, while five epitopes showed high binding affinity for MHC I and MHC II. The results were promising to formulate a vaccine with more than 98% population coverage. We hope that these promising epitopes serves as a preventive measure for the disease in the future and recommend in vivo and in vitro studies.