Title

Analysis of outer membrane protein from Orientia tsutsugamushi for epitope mining

Authors

Jogender Yadav¹, Sudheer Gupta², Ankur Joshi³, Abhijit P Pakhare³, Priyal Gupta¹, Santenna Chenchula⁴ & Shashank Purwar^1,*

Affiliation

¹Department of Microbiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India; ²NGS & Bioinformatics Division, 3B BlackBio DX Ltd., Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India; ³Department of Community and Family Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India; ⁴Department of Pharmacology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India; *Corresponding author

Email

Jogender Yadav - E-mail: jogender.phd2022@aiimsbhopal.edu.in
Sudheer Gupta - E-mail: Sudheer.bioinfo@gmail.com
Ankur Joshi - E-mail: ankur.cfm@aiimsbhopal.edu.in
Abhijit P Pakhare - E-mail: Abhijit.cfm@aiimsbhopal.edu.in
Priyal Gupta - E-mail: priyal.phd2019@aiimsbhopal.edu.in
Santenna Chenchula - E-mail: csanten7@gmail.com
Shashank Purwar - E-mail: shashank.microbiology@aiimsbhopal.edu.in

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received September 1, 2025; Revised September 30, 2025; Accepted September 30, 2025, Published September 30, 2025

Abstract

Scrub typhus, caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi, is an emerging health threat that can lead to severe complications if untreated. Therefore, it is of interest to analyse 130 sequences of the 56 kDa outer membrane protein, a key immunodominant antigen. SNP profiling identified 300 conserved and 8 highly variable residues. Epitope prediction revealed 73 conserved and 6 variable B cell epitopes, along with 4 conserved and 1 variable CD8⁺ T cell epitopes and 3 conserved and 1 variable CD4⁺ T cell epitopes. Notably, five immunogenic regions were predicted to activate B cells and both CD8⁺ and CD4⁺ T cells simultaneously. Thus, we show valuable insight into immune recognition and evasion strategies of O. tsutsugamushi. Subject to experimental validation, the identified epitopes represent promising candidates for rational vaccine development, improved serodiagnostics, and novel therapeutic interventions against scrub typhus.

Keywords

Orientia tsutsugamushi, Immune epitope, B-cell Epitope, T-cell Epitope, 56 kDa gene

Citation

Yadav et al. Bioinformation 21(9): 3140-3146 (2025)

Edited by

P Kangueane

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.