Applying the Concept of Peptide Uniqueness to Anti-Polio Vaccination.

BACKGROUND: Although rare, adverse events may associate with anti-poliovirus vaccination thus possibly hampering global polio eradication worldwide. OBJECTIVE: To design peptide-based anti-polio vaccines exempt from potential cross-reactivity risks and possibly able to reduce rare potential adverse events such as the postvaccine paralytic poliomyelitis due to the tendency of the poliovirus genome to mutate. METHODS: Proteins from poliovirus type 1, strain Mahoney, were analyzed for amino acid sequence identity to the human proteome at the pentapeptide level, searching for sequences that (1) have zero percent of identity to human proteins, (2) are potentially endowed with an immunologic potential, and (3) are highly conserved among poliovirus strains. RESULTS: Sequence analyses produced a set of consensus epitopic peptides potentially able to generate specific anti-polio immune responses exempt from cross-reactivity with the human host. CONCLUSION: Peptide sequences unique to poliovirus proteins and conserved among polio strains might help formulate a specific and universal anti-polio vaccine able to react with multiple viral strains and exempt from the burden of possible cross-reactions with human proteins. As an additional advantage, using a peptide-based vaccine instead of current anti-polio DNA vaccines would eliminate the rare post-polio poliomyelitis cases and other disabling symptoms that may appear following vaccination.

A qualitative description of the peptide sharing between poliovirus and Homo sapiens.

In a companion paper, we reported that pentapeptides from human poliovirus 1, Mahoney strain, occur repeatedly in human proteins for a total of more than 18,000 overlaps. In the present study, we describe the distribution of the polio pentapeptides throughout biochemical pathways and networks characterizing functions and tissues in the human host. The present study might be of help to better define the poliovirus-host relationships as well as for designing peptide modules with anti-polio activity.

Exon 1 polymorphisms in the equine CSN3 gene: SNPs distribution analysis in Murgese horse breed.

The aim of this study was to assess genetic polymorphism at two loci in the exon 1 of the CSN3 gene in Murgese horse breed by PCR-RFLP analysis. The overall frequencies of alleles A and G at c.-66A > G locus were 0.80 and 0.20, respectively, and no GG animals were found in the population. At the c.-36C > A locus allelic frequencies were 0.74 and 0.26 for allele C and A, respectively, and no AA animals were detected. Population genetic indexes, namely gene heterozygosity, gene homozygosity, effective allele numbers, fixation index, and polymorphism information index were calculated. Combined genotypic frequencies and possible haplotypes frequencies were also reported. Only three out of nine possible genotypic combinations were found in the studied population. The most frequent genotype was AACC (0.49) while the frequency of AGCA was 0.40. Only five animals were genotyped as AACA (11%). Consequently, the most frequent haplotype in the population was AC (0.744), followed by GA (0.200) and AA (0.056).