Evaluation of OmpA (Outer Membrane Protein A) linear and conformational epitopes in Acinetobacter baumannii

Acinetobacter baumanniiis a gram-negative aerobic non motile rod shaped bacterium causing severe infections in cooperated patients (Peleg et al.2008) There is an cumulative concern on prevalence of the bacterium in hospital environments, especially in intensive care units (ICUs), where it has been relatedwith different types of infections such as bacteraemia, meningitis, urinary pneumonia infections. Many A. baumannii separates manifest high levels of confrontation to antibiotics such as carbapenems, ampicillin-sulbactam, tetracyclines, aminoglycosides and quinolones. The emergence of A. baumannii strains resistant to all commonly used antibiotics, counting polymyxin B, colistin or tigecycline is of specific worry.Such a resistance to antimicrobial agents encourages researchers toward invoking alternative methods (e.g. immunotherapy) to face A. baumannii infections. Antigenic proteins could be employed to project efficient vaccines. In this regard,selection of a right immunogen within proteome of the pathogen is a critical step.Outer membrane proteins (OMPs) of gram-negative bacteria are recognized as strong immunogens. In the present study we exploit bioinformatic tools to introduce the best regions of OmpA as antigenic determinants in order to design (a) novel construct (s) as vaccine or diagnostics.

Keywords:

OmpA , Acinetobacter baumanniiis , Bioinformatic