PREDICTION OF VACCINE CANDIDATES FOR DENTAL CARIES USING IMMUNOINFORMATICS

Abstract

Despite the existing preventive measures, dental caries remains one of the most pervasive infections in humans. Epidemiological studies imply that there is a recent increase in dental caries in children. Conventionally, Streptococcus mutans has been considered as the earliest colonizer of oral cavity and the main etiological agent of dental caries. However, there are reports where other microbes have resulted in dental caries even in the absence of S.mutans. These studies support the polymicrobial nature of this disease and the use of immunization strategies using vaccine targets shared by different pathogens involved in the process of tooth decay. Till date, almost all the efforts put in to immunize people against caries have targeted S.mutans only. Only a few studies have tried to develop vaccines targeting both S.mutans and S.sobrinus with little or no success. This study, aimed at preventing dental caries, provides the basis for identification of vaccine candidates for developing a dental caries vaccine that can elicit both B-cell and T-cell mediated immune response against multiple cariogenic microorganisms. A novel strategy has been used to predict such antigenic B-cell epitopes which contain T-cell epitopes also. The predicted T-epitopes bind to the maximum number of HLA-DR alleles and bind with high affinity to the most frequently occurring HLA-DR alleles in the human population and hence have worldwide protective effects.