Effects of Vector Fusion Peptides on the Conformation and Immune Reactivity of Epitope-Shuffled, Recombinant Multi-Epitope Antigens

The use of multi-epitopes has been considered as a promising strategy to overcome the obstacle of antigenic variation in malarial vaccine development. Previously, we constructed a multi-epitope artificial antigen, Malaria Random Constructed Antigen-1(M.RCAg-1), to optimize expression of the antigen, and we subcloned the gene into three prokaryotic expression vectors that contain different fusion tags at the N-terminus. Three recombinant proteins expressed by these vectors, named M.RCAg-1/Exp.V-1, V-2, and V-3, were purified after the cleavage of the fusion tag. All three recombinant proteins were able to induce similar levels of antigenicity in BALB/c murine models. However, the antibody responses against the individual epitope peptides of the recombinant products were dramatically different. Additionally, the different epitopes elicited various CD4+ T-cell responses, as shown by the resulting lymphocyte proliferation and varied IFN-γ and IL-4 levels determined by EILSPOT; however, each could be distinctly recognized by sera derived from malaria patients. Additionally, the rabbit antibody induced by these proteins showed diverse efficacy in malaria parasite growth inhibition assays in vitro. Furthermore, analysis via circular dichroism spectroscopy confirmed that the secondary structure was different among these recombinant proteins. These results suggest that the expressed multi-epitope artificial antigens originating from the different vector fusion peptides indeed affect the protein folding and, subsequently, the epitope exposure. Thus, these proteins are able to induce both distinct humoral and cellular immune responses in animal models, and they affect the efficacy of immune inhibition against the parasite. This work should lead to a further understanding of the impact of vector fusion peptides on the conformation and immune reactivity of recombinant proteins and could provide a useful reference for the development of artificial multi-epitope vaccines.