In silico prediction of the T-cell and IgE-binding epitopes of Per a 6 and Bla g 6 allergens in cockroaches

Per a 6 and Bla g 6 are cockroach allergens found in Periplaneta americana and Blattella germanica, respectively. The objective of the present study was to predict the B- and T-cell epitopes of the Per a 6 and Bla g 6 allergens. Three immunoinformatics tools, the DNAStar Protean system, the Bioinformatics Predicted Antigenic Peptides system and the BepiPred 1.0 server, were used to predict the potential B-cell epitopes, while Net-MHCIIpan-2.0 and NetMHCII-2.2 were used to predict the T-cell epitopes of the two allergens. As a result, seven peptides were predicted in the Per a 6 allergen and seven peptides were predicted in the Bla g 6 allergen in the B-cell epitope predictions. In the T-cell prediction, the Per a 6 allergen was predicted to have nine strongly binding nonamer core epitope sequences (IC50<50 nm) and 28 weakly binding sequences (50 nm<IC50<500 nm), while the Bla g 6 allergen was predicted to have nine strong binders and 25 weak binders. These results may be useful for peptide-based vaccine designs.