Computational Screening of Membrane Protein Epitopes for Vaccine Development Against Trypanosoma brucei  ^†

Introduction: African trypanosomiasis is a fatal parasitic disease that affects both humans and animals. Trypanosoma brucei is the main causative agent, with the tsetse fly as the vector responsible for its transmission. Considering the severity of the disease, this study aims to identify potential epitopes for vaccine development against Trypanosoma brucei. Methodology: Plasma membrane proteins were selected. FASTA sequences were retrieved from the UniProt online server. Allergenicity and antigenicity assessments were performed using the VaxiJen 2.0 and AllerTOP 2.0 platforms. B-cell epitopes were obtained from the ABCPred platform, and T-cell epitopes from the IEDB platform. Results: The initial search yielded a total of 34.520 entries. A subsequent filter was applied to select exclusively membrane proteins, reducing the number of results to 12.094. From these, reviewed proteins were selected, resulting in a total of 46 proteins. These proteins were analyzed using the VaxiJen and AllerTOP platforms, yielding seven proteins with both antigenic and non-allergenic profiles. B- and T-cell epitopes were then selected; the epitopes were subjected to allergenicity and antigenicity testing, selecting only non-allergenic epitopes with antigenicity values greater than 1.0. Conclusions: The results indicate that screening membrane proteins and identifying non-allergenic epitopes with high antigenicity provide promising candidates, contributing to the development of vaccines against Trypanosoma brucei.