Construction of a multi-epitope protein for human Toxocara canis detection: Immunoinformatics approach multi-epitope construct for T. canis serodiagnosis

Abstract Toxocariasis is a global public health concern, particularly in children. Serological diagnosis of the infection is routinely applied to detect specific anti-Toxocara antibodies. Current in silico study was contrived to design a multi-epitope protein using a wide array of immunoinformatics web servers for improved serodiagnosis. Top, high-ranked B-cell epitopes as well as IL-4 and IL-10 inducing epitopes were predicted, screened and selected to construct the chimeric protein. Then, prediction of antigenicity, solubility and physico-chemical features, secondary and tertiary structures, 3D model refinement and validations was done using various web servers. Finally, conformational B-cell epitopes were determined for possible protein-antibody interactions. Moreover, the final construct was subjected to disulfide engineering, codon adaptation, in silico cloning as well as molecular docking with human TLR-2 molecule. In conclusion, this multi-epitope construct needs to be evaluated experimentally, in order to be used in commercial serodiagnostic kits.