The State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, College of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China, China
Auto-generated profile, based on publicly available information
Sathishkumar Chinnasamy
The State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, College of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China, China
Flagellin activates innate, cellular and humoral immunity through Toll-like receptor 5 (TLR5), and this interaction can be exploited to improve vaccines against oncogenic human papillomavirus (HPV). The binding mechanism between flagellin-fabricated peptide vaccines (FFPVs) and TLR5, however, remains unclear. Here, three FFPV candidates (C58, C52 and C16) were designed from overlapped epitope segments in the conserved N-terminal region of the L2 minor capsid protein of HPV58, HPV52 and HPV16. These segments were predicted to induce cytotoxic T-lymphocyte, T-helper, IFNγ and B-cell responses. Each construct also carried two TLR agonist adjuvants (flagellin and RS09), two universal T-helper epitopes and defined peptide linkers. Physicochemical and immunological properties were evaluated, and three-dimensional models of the FFPVs and TLR5 were generated, refined and validated. Protein–protein docking with HADDOCK and PRODIGY ranked the TLR5-C58 complex highest, ahead of TLR5-C16 and TLR5-C52. To test the docking result, the TLR5-C58 complex was simulated for [100 ns] in explicit solvent, and the root mean square deviation, total energy, hydrogen bonds and key-residue distances were analyzed. The simulation identified a binding mode with ten key residues in the leucine-rich repeat (LRR) region of TLR5, and the binding free energies agreed with experimental reports. These findings offer a structural basis for the rational design of L2-based vaccines against cervical cancer.