EVALUATION OF MYCOPLASMA HOMINIS PROTEOME TO IDENTIFY THE POTENTIAL VACCINE CANDIDATE PROTEINS

Objective: Mycoplasma hominisis a gram-negative bacteria belonging to class Mollicutes that is commonly present in men and women of reproductive age. At present, there is no effective prophylaxis for Mycoplasma hominis, as it has gained resistance for the drugs hence an in-silico approach was undertaken to find out the peptide-based vaccine for the pathogen. Methods: In women, it affects the genital tract and involved in causing pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy, early delivery, miscarriage and prolonged infection may lead to infertility. M. hominis can also be transmitted from mother during childbirth and cause fever and infection in the new-born baby. All the 529 protein sequences of Mycoplasma hominis were taken in FASTA format from the UniProt proteome database. Antigenicity study was done for all the proteins of the pathogen using VaxiJen v2.0 and the proteins with high antigenicity scores were taken for further analysis like structural and functional analysis using InterPro, molecular docking using Autodock and molecular simulation study was carried out using Charmm. Results: The study identifies 50S ribosomal protein L28, Potassium transporter KtrB, Cobalt ABC transporter permease and Membrane protein as the putative vaccine candidates which are membrane-bound with high antigenicity properties and show good molecular docking and simulations results. Conclusion: From the study and analysis of the results, the proteins identified might work as a vaccine against the pathogen as they have passed all the necessary in-silico screenings. However, the in-silico results have to be validated by in-vitro studies.