Evaluations of Alkyl hydroperoxide reductase B cell antigen epitope as a potential epitope vaccine against Campylobacter jejuni

OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to screen and find alkyl hydroperoxide reductase (AhpC) B cell dominant epitope of Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Bio-informatic algorithms were used to predict B cell epitopes of AhpC. The AhpC protein and chemically synthesized antigenic epitopes of C. jejuni were considered as antigens, and the AhpC antibody was used as the primary antibody, ELISA and dot blot were used to analyze and screen the dominant epitope. The specific IgG of mice serum and IL-4 in splenocyte culture supernatant were detected by ELISA. The protective efficacy was evaluated by animal disease index and tissue histopathological staining of the jejunum. RESULTS: Seven epitopes of AhpC were predicted, one epitope (AhpC(4–16)) was found to recognize the antibodies of AhpC and had strong antigenicity by ELISA and dot blot analysis. In epitope AhpC(4–16) immunized mice, specific IgG of serum and IL-4 in splenocyte culture supernatant were significantly higher. The illness index decreased significantly, the protective rate was 66.67%. Histopathology displayed that the jejunum morphology was better than the control group. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggested that epitope AhpC(4–16) showed effective protective role against C. jejuni and is a candidate epitope of vaccine against this pathogen.