Immunomics Approach to Develop an Immunogenic Polypeptide from Brucella abortus: Design and Recombinant Expression

Brucellosis in livestock and its transmission to humans through the consumption of contaminated dairy products is an important issue. In this study, five immunogenic proteins were obtained from a 2DE gel analysis of Brucella abortus proteome after interaction with infected cattle's serum antibodies. These five proteins, MOXR family ATPase-α2, T9SS C-terminal Target domain-containing protein, Cobyric acid synthase, Hypothetical Protein, and Vir-B11 type IV Secretion Protein were introduced to the Brucella abortus proteome by MALDI-TOF MS/MS spectroscopy and then, analyzed with Mascot. Bioinformatics was applied to predict B and T cell epitopes, which were then randomly linked together to design a novel recombinant multi-epitope protein. The synthesized construct was transferred to E. coli BL21 and the expressed protein (ABOR) contained 549aa was confirmed with specific antibodies in infected cattle's serum.