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. 2003 Oct;4(5):468–478. doi: 10.1002/cfg.319

Analysis of Known Bacterial Protein Vaccine Antigens Reveals Biased Physical Properties and Amino Acid Composition

Carl Mayers 1, Melanie Duffield 1,✉, Sonya Rowe 1, Julie Miller 1, Bryan Lingard 1, Sarah Hayward 1, Richard W Titball 1
PMCID: PMC2447292  PMID: 18629010

Abstract

Many vaccines have been developed from live attenuated forms of bacterial pathogens or from killed bacterial cells. However, an increased awareness of the potential for transient side-effects following vaccination has prompted an increased emphasis on the use of sub-unit vaccines, rather than those based on whole bacterial cells. The identification of vaccine sub-units is often a lengthy process and bioinformatics approaches have recently been used to identify candidate protein vaccine antigens. Such methods ultimately offer the promise of a more rapid advance towards preclinical studies with vaccines. We have compared the properties of known bacterial vaccine antigens against randomly selected proteins and identified differences in the make-up of these two groups. A computer algorithm that exploits these differences allows the identification of potential vaccine antigen candidates from pathogenic bacteria on the basis of their amino acid composition, a property inherently associated with sub-cellular location.

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Selected References

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