Molecular Identification and Bioinformatics Analysis of Moonlighting Proteins as Possible Antigenic Targets.

Background: Diseases of veterinary importance, such as bovine Anaplasmosis, cause significant economic losses. Due to this, the study of various proteins of the causal agent has focused on surface proteins. However, a vaccine for this disease is not yet available. To this end, in this work, moonlighting proteins (MLPs) are presented as an alternative approach for the design of immunogens against .

Methods: The proteins of the strain MEX-15-099-01 were analyzed, and its MLPs were identified. Subsequently, four virulence-associated MLP genes were selected and identified using PCR. The proteins were analyzed using a structural homology approach and the collection of B-cell epitopes was predicted for each MLP. Finally, a pair of AmEno peptides were synthesized and the antigenic potential was tested using an iELISA.

Results: Our bioinformatics analysis revealed the potential of AmEno, AmGroEl, AmEF-Tu, and AmDnaK proteins as promising candidates for designing immunogens. The PCR allowed the gene sequence identification in the genome of the strain MEX-15-099-01. Notably, AmEno-derived synthetic peptides showed antigenicity in an ELISA.

Conclusions: Our study has shed light on the potential use of MLPs for immunogen design, demonstrating the antigenic potential of AmEno.