Comparison of Conserved Domains

Cross-protection is a vaccine property that offers protection against related species and strains . To determine the potential of cross-protection offered by our vaccine, we conducted multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis using MegaX and ClustalW tools. TS protein family sequences from various species and strains were downloaded. Thereafter, we performed multiple sequence alignments to find conserved and variable regions of the Trans-sialidase proteins.

Furthermore, we searched shortlisted epitopes (belonging to TS of TC-CLB) against the Trans-sialidase proteins of other related species and strains of T. cruzi CLB like T. brucei brucei (strain 927_4 GUTat10.1), T. brucei gambiense (strain MHOM_CI_86_DAL972) [679716], T. rangeli SC58 [429131], T. congolense (TRYCO) [5692], T. cruzi Dm28c [1416333] and T. cruzi marinkellei [85056] (Supplementary Data). To illustrate, we found the presence of “SLWSVRL” epitope in TS of T. cruzi Dm28c [1416333], in T. cruzi marinkellei and Trypanosoma cruzi.