Construction and Immunological Evaluation of a Helicobacter pylori Multi-epitope Vaccine Based on Immunoinformatics

Ling TANG; Muyi LENG; Zheng HU; Yi WANG

doi:10.16605/j.cnki.1007-7847.2025.05.0151

Life Sci Res ›› 2025, Vol. 29 ›› Issue (5) : 425-440. DOI: 10.16605/j.cnki.1007-7847.2025.05.0151

BIOINFORMATICS

Construction and Immunological Evaluation of a Helicobacter pylori Multi-epitope Vaccine Based on Immunoinformatics

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Abstract

Helicobacter pylori infection is a major global cause of gastritis, peptic ulcers and gastric cancer, presenting a huge public health challenge that urgently requires the development of effective vaccines. This study utilized an immunoinformatics approach to construct a novel multi-epitope vaccine through systematic epitope screening of key H. pylori virulence factors (OipA, VacA, IceA1, and HpaA). Based on stringent cri-teria (including antigenicity score > 0.4, non-allergenicity, non-toxicity, and no homology with human pro-teins), five highly immunogenic cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL; Tc cell) epitopes were selected from 173 candi-dates, six helper T cell (Th cell) epitopes were identified from 191 candidates, and eight linear B-cell epitopes were determined from 865 candidates. The selected epitopes were integrated with the LT-ⅡB adjuvant via linkers, resulting in a multi-epitope vaccine comprising 421 amino acid residues (molecular weight: 44.613 kDa, theoretical pI: 8.17). The vaccine exhibited high antigenicity (score: 1.096 4), stability and hydrophilicity. Structural analysis revealed a well-proportioned distribution of secondary structures in the vaccine: 37.055% α-helices, 7.363% β-turns, 38.242% random coils, and 17.340% extended strands. Molecular docking con-firmed stable binding interactions between the vaccine and Toll-like receptors (TLR2, TLR4, TLR5, TLR9 and TLR10), suggesting its potential to effectively activate innate immunity. Immunosimulation analysis de-monstrated that this vaccine can elicit robust humoral and cellular immune responses, with theoretical popu-lation coverage of 76.18%. Furthermore, the codon-optimized vaccine sequence was successfully cloned into the pET-28a(+) vector, laying the foundation for subsequent experiments. In summary, the constructed multi-epitope vaccine exhibited both broad-spectrum protective potential and high safety. This study provides an innovative design strategy for H. pylori vaccine development, and also offers a reference model for vaccines against other pathogens.

Key words

Helicobacter pylori / multi-epitope vaccine / immunoinformatics / antibiotic resistance

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Ling TANG , Muyi LENG , Zheng HU , et al. Construction and Immunological Evaluation of a Helicobacter pylori Multi-epitope Vaccine Based on Immunoinformatics[J]. Life Science Research. 2025, 29(5): 425-440 https://doi.org/10.16605/j.cnki.1007-7847.2025.05.0151

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