Reverse vaccinology and immunoinformatics approaches for multi-epitope vaccine design against Klebsiella pneumoniae reveal a novel vaccine target protein.

ABSTRACT: Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae), a Gram-negative pathogen, is a leading cause of hospital-acquired infections in Sudan and worldwide. The emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains has severely limited treatment options, underscoring the urgent need for an effective vaccine. In this study, we employed reverse vaccinology and immunoinformatics to design a novel multi-epitope vaccine targeting the hypervirulent NUBRI-K strain. Two conserved, non-host homologous iron acquisition proteins, IucA/IucC and FyuA, were prioritized as targets. The vaccine construct integrates six B-cell, six cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL), and six helper T lymphocyte (HTL) epitopes, linked by optimized spacers and fused to a β-defensin adjuvant. Computational analyses confirmed strong antigenicity (1.0429),

SUBMITTER: Elfadil MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12152629 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature