Recombinant expression of <i>in silico</i> identified B-cell epitope of epsilon toxin of <i>Clostridium perfringens</i> in translational fusion with a carrier protein

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Title	*Recombinant expression of in silico* identified B-cell epitope of epsilon toxin of Clostridium perfringens in translational fusion with a carrier protein**
Authors	Himani Kaushik¹†, Sachin Deshmukh¹†, Deepika Dayal Mathur¹, Archana Tiwari² & Lalit C. Garg¹*
Affiliation	¹Gene Regulation Laboratory, National Institute of Immunology, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi – 110067, India, ²School of Biotechnololgy, Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya, Airport Bypass Road, Gandhi Nagar, Bhopal, MP – 462036, India
Email	lalit@nii.ac.in; *Corresponding author
Article Type	Hypothesis
Date	Received May 28, 2013; Accepted June 01, 2013; Published July 12, 2013
Abstract	Epsilon toxin secreted by Clostridium perfringens types B and D has been directly implicated as the causative agent of fatal enterotoxemia in domestic animals. The aim of the present study is to use in silico approach for identification of B-cell epitope(s) of epsilon toxin, and its expression in fusion with a carrier protein to analyze its potential as vaccine candidate(s). Using different computational analyses and bioinformatics tools, a number of antigenic determinant regions of epsilon toxin were identified. One of the B cell epitopes of epsilon toxin comprising the region (amino acids 40-62) was identified as a promising antigenic determinant. This Etx epitope (Etx40-62) was cloned and expressed as a translational fusion with B-subunit of heat labile enterotoxin (LTB) of E. coli in a secretory expression system. Similar to the native LTB, the recombinant fusion protein retained the ability to pentamerize and bind to GM1 ganglioside receptor of LTB. The rLTB.Etx40-62 could be detected both with anti-Etx and anti-LTB antisera. The rLTB.Etx40-62 fusion protein thus can be evaluated as a potential vaccine candidate against C. perfringens.
Keywords	Epitope, Bioinformatics, Epitope prediction algorithms, In silico, Epsilon toxin, Clostridium perfringens, LTB, fusion protein, vaccine.
Abbreviations	aa, amino acid(s), Etx, epsilon toxin of Clostridium perfringens, LTB, B-subunit of heat labile enterotoxin of E. coli.
Citation	*Kaushik et al.* Bioinformation 9(12): 617-621 (2013)
Edited by	P Kangueane
ISSN	0973-2063
Publisher	Biomedical Informatics
License	This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.