In Silico Design of Multi-Epitope ESAT-6:Ag85b:Fcγ2a Fusion Protein as a Novel Candidate for Tuberculosis Vaccine

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), which is the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), is among the most important infectious bacteria with high morbidity and mortality rates worldwide. Bacilli Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine has been discovered for about a century, and it is considered as a major vaccine for humans. However, some factors, such as its attenuated nature and its inefficacy against the latent form of the disease, have led to the use of alternative vaccines. Multi-epitope subunit vaccines are new-generation vaccines that are being developed in clinical trial phases. For the production of a subunit vaccine, the selection of immunodominant antigens and targeted delivery systems to antigen presenting cells (APCs) are considered as basic parameters. In the present study, we designed the novel multi-epitope ESAT-6:Ag85B:Fcγ2a, which was evaluated completely by various online tools as an optimum vaccine against TB. The early secreted antigenic target of 6 kDa (ESAT-6) and antigen 85B (Ag85B) are two immunodominant antigens, and Fcγ2a is a targeted delivery system. This vaccine candidate can be used for future preclinical studies.