Designing and development of epitope-based vaccines against Helicobacter pylori

Abstract

Helicobacter pylori infection is the principal cause of serious diseases (e.g. gastric cancer and peptic ulcers). Antibiotic therapy is an inadequate strategy in H. pylori eradication because of which vaccination is an inevitable approach. Despite the presence of countless vaccine candidates, current vaccines in clinical trials have performed with poor efficacy which makes vaccination extremely challenging. Remarkable advancements in immunology and pathogenic biology have provided an appropriate opportunity to develop various epitope-based vaccines. The fusion of proper antigens involved in different aspects of H. pylori colonization and pathogenesis as well as peptide linkers and built-in adjuvants results in producing epitope-based vaccines with excellent therapeutic efficacy and negligible adverse effects. Difficulties of the in vitro culture of H. pylori, high genetic variation, and unfavourable immune responses against feeble epitopes in the complete antigen are major drawbacks of current vaccine strategies that epitope-based vaccines may overcome. Besides decreasing the biohazard risk, designing precise formulations, saving time and cost, and induction of maximum immunity with minimum adverse effects are the advantages of epitope-based vaccines. The present article is a comprehensive review of strategies for designing and developing epitope-based vaccines to provide insights into the innovative vaccination against H. pylori.

Keywords:

• Helicobacter pylori
• epitope-based vaccines
• epitopes
• built-in adjuvants
• bioinformatic tools

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Dr. Mohammad Mostafa Pourseif [Research Center for Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology (RCPN), Tabriz University of Medical Sciences] and Dr. Hamid Madanchi (Biotechnology Research Center, Pasteur Institute of Iran) for their helpful comments.

Author contributions

All authors contributed to the writing and review of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute for Medical Research Development (NIMAD) (Grant no. 989320).