Identification of Novel Drug Targets and Antigenic Proteins in Helicobacter Hepaticus through Proteome-Mediated Mining |Biomedgrid

Helicobacter hepaticus is a known pathobiont that causes hepatocellular carcinoma and intestinal cancer in mice. In recent studies, Helicobacter hepaticus in human patients with gallbladder cancer, biliary tract, and liver diseases has been reported. In this study, we aimed to identify therapeutic targets and vaccine candidates against the pathobiont via computational biology. The core proteome of Helicobacter hepaticus ATCC 51449 was retrieved from UNIPROT and analyzed to remove paralogs and duplicates. After identifying human non-homologous proteins and predicting subcellular localization, cytoplasmic proteins were subjected to essentiality, pathway, and druggability analysis. The analysis of essential cytoplasmic proteins resulted in six druggable targets having vital roles in peptidoglycan and lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis. For the identification of vaccine candidates, outer membrane and extracellular proteins were analyzed. After determining antigenic proteins, T and B-cell epitope prediction was carried out to uncover common epitopes for the candidates. Vaccine candidate identification revealed eleven antigenic proteins, five of which had overlapped T and B-cell epitopes that can elicit both humoral and cell-mediated immune response. Identified druggable targets and vaccine candidates might be used to develop successful treatment of infections caused by Helicobacter hepaticus.