DEVELOPMENT OF A PNEUMOCOCCAL VACCINE BASED ON MULTIEPITOPES

• Grant number: 21/02930-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: August 01, 2022
• Status: Discontinued
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Viviane Maimoni Gonçalves
• Grantee: Vítor dos Santos Alves
• Host Institution: Instituto Butantan. Secretaria da Saúde (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 17/24832-6 - Development of vaccines based on recombinant BCG: Tuberculosis, Pertussis, Pneumococcus and Schistosoma, AP.TEM
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/05505-8 - Can a novel multi-epitope, serotype-independent pneumococcal vaccine candidate confer protection against human carriage and transmission?, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

Streptococcus pneumoniae can cause a series of human infections leading to multiple health hazards, such as pneumonia, meningitis, bacteremia and sepsis. Pneumococcal vaccines currently on the market are based on polysaccharides and have limited coverage against the nearly 100 serotypes described. Although polysaccharide-based vaccines are important in preventing disease and decreasing the prevalence of vaccine serotypes, they create conditions for an increase in the prevalence of non-vaccine serotypes (NVTs), reducing the benefits of vaccination. Due to the high cost of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines and their limited coverage, several studies have sought alternatives to develop pneumococcal vaccines with lower cost and larger serotype coverage. Pneumococcal proteins have been extensively studied for this purpose, as they are more conserved among different serotypes. The sophistication of immunoinformatic tools makes it possible to screen B and T cell epitopes within pneumococcal proteins and enables the design of epitope-based antigens. Furthermore, epitopes from different proteins can be assembled into a single multi-epitope chimeric protein. One of the barriers to the success of epitope-based approaches is the need for an adequate delivery system. In this context, the use of virus-like particles (VLPs) is noteworthy, because they have adjuvant properties and can serve as carriers of heterologous antigens by means of chemical bonds, or as a system for presenting epitopes on the surface of chimeric recombinant VLPs. Thus, the present project aims to develop a pneumococcal vaccine based on multi-epitopes that will be selected by bioinformatics, and conjugated to VLPs as a carrier of the epitopes of selected pneumococcal proteins.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

ZANE, LUCIANO; KRASCHOWETZ, STEFANIE; TRENTINI, MONALISA MARTINS; ALVES, VITOR DOS SANTOS; ARAUJO, SERGIO CARNEIRO; GOULART, CIBELLY; LEITE, LUCIANA CEZAR DE CERQUEIRA; GONCALVES, VIVIANE MAIMONI. Peptide linker increased the stability of pneumococcal fusion protein vaccine candidate. FRONTIERS IN BIOENGINEERING AND BIOTECHNOLOGY, v. 11, p. 18-pg., 2023-01-26. (16/50413-8, 21/02930-1, 19/06454-0, 17/24832-6, 09/17030-4)