%0 Journal Article %T In silico analysis and expression of a new chimeric antigen as a vaccine candidate against cutaneous leishmaniasis %J Iranian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences %I Mashhad University of Medical Sciences %Z 2008-3866 %A Motamedpour, Leila %A Dalimi, Abdolhossein %A Pirestani, Majid %A Ghafarifar, Fatemeh %D 2020 %\ 11/01/2020 %V 23 %N 11 %P 1409-1418 %! In silico analysis and expression of a new chimeric antigen as a vaccine candidate against cutaneous leishmaniasis %K Bioinformatics %K Leishmania major %K Polytope %K TLGL %K Vaccine %R 10.22038/ijbms.2020.45394.10561 %X Objective(s): Since leishmaniasis is one of the health problems in many countries, the development of preventive vaccines against it is a top priority. Peptide vaccines may be a new way to fight the Leishmania infection. In this study, a silicon method was used to predict and analyze B and T cells to produce a vaccine against cutaneous leishmaniasis.Materials and Methods: Immunodominant epitope of Leishmania were selected from four TSA, LPG3, GP63, and Lmsti1 antigens and linked together using a flexible linker (SAPGTP). The antigenic and allergenic features, 2D and 3D structures, and physicochemical features of a chimeric protein were predicted. Finally, through bioinformatics methods, the mRNA structure was predicted and was produced chemically and cloned into the pLEXY-neo2 vector.Results: Results indicated, polytope had no allergenic properties, but its antigenicity was estimated to be 0.92%. The amino acids numbers, molecular weight as well as negative and positive charge residuals were estimated 390, ~41KDa, 41, and 30, respectively. The results showed that the designed polytope has 50 post-translationally modified sites. Also, the secondary structure of the protein is composed of 25.38% alpha-helix, 12.31% extended strand, and 62.31% random coil. The results of SDS-PAGE and Western blotting revealed the recombinant protein with ̴ 41 kDa. The results of Ramachandran plot showed that 96%, 2.7%, and 1.3% of amino acid residues were located in the preferred, permitted, and outlier areas, respectively. Conclusion: It is expected that the TLGL polytope will produce a cellular immune response. Therefore, the polytope could be a good candidate for an anti-leishmanial vaccine. %U https://ijbms.mums.ac.ir/article_16432_5687b6c91296e5573129d29e057b79b1.pdf