23 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jgeb.2026.100711 English eng Arya, Jasmine Contributor <div class="abstract author" id="as010" style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(31, 31, 31); font-family: ElsevierGulliver, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, STIXGeneral, "Cambria Math", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Microsoft Sans Serif", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Arial Unicode MS", serif, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><h3 class="u-h4 u-margin-m-top u-margin-xs-bottom" id="st015" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; margin-top: 24px !important; margin-bottom: 8px !important; font-size: 20px !important; line-height: 30px !important;">Aim</h3><div class="u-margin-s-bottom" id="sp0010" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px !important;">To construct a multi-epitope vaccine using virulent proteins of <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Streptococcus agalactiae</em> strain 2603 V/R.</div></div><div class="abstract author" id="as015" style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(31, 31, 31); font-family: ElsevierGulliver, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, STIXGeneral, "Cambria Math", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Microsoft Sans Serif", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Arial Unicode MS", serif, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><h3 class="u-h4 u-margin-m-top u-margin-xs-bottom" id="st020" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; margin-top: 24px !important; margin-bottom: 8px !important; font-size: 20px !important; line-height: 30px !important;">Background</h3><div class="u-margin-s-bottom" id="sp0015" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px !important;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Streptococcus agalactiae</em> strain 2603 V/R is causative agent of various diseases and infections in neonates, pregnant women as well as elderly patients with significant underlying diseases. World health organisation reported high number of new born deaths and stillbirths. Various studies have shown that no licensed vaccine is available against meningitis caused by GBS. Therefore, new preventive methods against GBS are desirable to be developed.</div></div><div class="abstract author" id="as020" style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(31, 31, 31); font-family: ElsevierGulliver, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, STIXGeneral, "Cambria Math", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Microsoft Sans Serif", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Arial Unicode MS", serif, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><h3 class="u-h4 u-margin-m-top u-margin-xs-bottom" id="st025" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; margin-top: 24px !important; margin-bottom: 8px !important; font-size: 20px !important; line-height: 30px !important;">Objectives</h3><div class="u-margin-s-bottom" id="sp0020" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px !important;">1. To identify antigenic proteins from proteome of <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Streptococcus agalactiae</em> 2603 V/R. 2. Identification of epitopes from filtered-out proteins. 3. Designing a multi-epitope vaccine using epitopes of screened proteins and validating it with docking analysis and simulation studies.</div></div><div class="abstract author" id="as025" style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(31, 31, 31); font-family: ElsevierGulliver, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, STIXGeneral, "Cambria Math", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Microsoft Sans Serif", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Arial Unicode MS", serif, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><h3 class="u-h4 u-margin-m-top u-margin-xs-bottom" id="st030" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; margin-top: 24px !important; margin-bottom: 8px !important; font-size: 20px !important; line-height: 30px !important;">Methods</h3><div class="u-margin-s-bottom" id="sp0025" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px !important;">The proteins of pathogen <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Streptococcus agalactiae</em> strain 2603 V/R were analysed to obtain antigenic proteins which were further used for B and T cell epitope predictions using various reverse vaccinology-based tools. Finally, by applying immunoinformatics approach a MEV construct was designed. Molecular docking analysis was performed for better understanding of binding energy and further validation was done using molecular dynamic simulations.</div></div><div class="abstract author" id="as030" style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(31, 31, 31); font-family: ElsevierGulliver, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, STIXGeneral, "Cambria Math", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Microsoft Sans Serif", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Arial Unicode MS", serif, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><h3 class="u-h4 u-margin-m-top u-margin-xs-bottom" id="st035" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; margin-top: 24px !important; margin-bottom: 8px !important; font-size: 20px !important; line-height: 30px !important;">Results</h3><div class="u-margin-s-bottom" id="sp0030" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px !important;">4 target proteins were screened for construction of MEV using 27 predicted epitopes and docking analysis demonstrated vaccine interaction with TLR, MHC I and MHC II having binding energy −40.862 kcal/mol, −43.866 kcal/mol and −56.942 kcal/mol. Simulation studies demonstrated that the vaccine complexed with immune and MHC receptors was stable during the simulation time.</div></div><div class="abstract author" id="as035" style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(31, 31, 31); font-family: ElsevierGulliver, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, STIXGeneral, "Cambria Math", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Microsoft Sans Serif", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Arial Unicode MS", serif, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><h3 class="u-h4 u-margin-m-top u-margin-xs-bottom" id="st040" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; margin-top: 24px !important; margin-bottom: 8px !important; font-size: 20px !important; line-height: 30px !important;">Conclusions</h3><div class="u-margin-s-bottom" id="sp0035" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px !important;">The isolated virulent proteins provided insights into crucial targets for development of an efficient, highly specific, and safe MEV construct. The anticipated vaccine construct will potentially provide a long-term immunity to majority of people against <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Streptococcus agalactiae</em>.</div></div> Elsevier June 2026 pdf Journal of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Combating Streptococcus agalactiae infections by designing a multi-epitope vaccine using molecular dynamic simulations mixed material Elsevier