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In silico proteomic characterization of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2) for the mapping of high affinity antigenic determinants against breast cancer

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Abstract

Multiple different approaches are being used to activate the immune system against breast cancer. Vaccine therapy in general follows the principle that injections of various substances ultimately result in the presentation of tumor peptides to the patient’s immune system. We proposed a potential in silico DNA vaccine against breast cancer by integrating high affinity T cell (MHC-I and MHC-II) and B cell (continuous and discontinuous) epitopes. The matching of the HLA haplotype and antigen was performed to provide the appropriate peptide epitope suitable for majority of the patients. The immunogenic nature of the antigenic construct was also enhanced by the administration of consensus epitopes. The potency of DNA vaccines depends on the efficient expression and presentation of the encoded antigen of interest and the chances of efficient expression of our antigenic construct in host organism was also verified by in silico approaches. An attempt was made to overcome the limited potency of the DNA vaccine by targeting DNA to professional antigen-presenting cells (APCs). A higher immune response theoretically corresponds to a higher survival rate of patients. Therefore, optimization studies were also employed to enhance the immunogenicity of proposed in silico DNA vaccine.

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Acknowledgments

BAA greatly acknowledges the expert assistance for discussions, encouragement and for useful suggestions of Prof. R. N. K. Bamezai. We thank Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, New Delhi for financial support. SKG acknowledges Society for Biological Research & Rural Development for munificent support.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre of Bioinformatics, School of Biotechnology, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi (SMVD) University, Jammu, Jammu and Kahmir, 182320, India

    Urvashi Baloria, Bashir Akhlaq Akhoon & Vijeshwar Verma

  2. Society for Biological Research and Rural Development, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Shishir Kumar Gupta

  3. Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM), Jammu, 180001, Jammu and Kahmir, India

    Sujata Sharma

  4. BIF Centre, School of Biotechnology, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University Campus, Sub P.O. SMVD University, Katra, 182320, Jammu and Kahmir, India

    Bashir Akhlaq Akhoon

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  1. Urvashi Baloria
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  2. Bashir Akhlaq Akhoon
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  3. Shishir Kumar Gupta
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  4. Sujata Sharma
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  5. Vijeshwar Verma
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Correspondence to Bashir Akhlaq Akhoon.

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U. Baloria and B. A. Akhoon contributed equally to this work.

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Baloria, U., Akhoon, B.A., Gupta, S.K. et al. In silico proteomic characterization of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2) for the mapping of high affinity antigenic determinants against breast cancer. Amino Acids 42, 1349–1360 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-010-0830-x

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