Mucormycosis Vaccine Design using Bioinformatic Tools

ABSTRACT

Mucormycosis is an infection that occurs due to the presence of filamentous molds. Rhizopus delemar is a major cause of mucormycosis. The infection may be due to the inoculation of spores into wounds, inhalation of the spores, or the consumption of contaminated food. Mucormycosis cases have risen during the second wave of COVID-19 infections in India. Therefore, there is an urgent requirement for a vaccine against mucormycosis. The development of these vaccines is costly and time-consuming. Different methods have been used to decrease the expense and duration of time required for the development of a vaccine. One such method is the use of bioinformatics techniques for the development of vaccines. In this paper, the screening of epitopes through the bioinformatic tools predicts that the RO3G_11882 protein of Rhizopus delemar can be used for preparing immunological constructs. Binding and molecular simulation tests predict that the nanomeric epitope VLALHNFLL has low energy minimization values which provide stability to the peptide-MHC complex and sufficient binding with MHC class II molecules. This peptide sequence needs to further go through wet lab tests, for developing a vaccine against Mucormycosis. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.