Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) is a causative agent of severe infections in humans. There is no
publically available vaccine for K. pneumoniae infections yet. Here, using comprehensive immunoinformatics methods, T-cell-specific epitopes of four type 1 fimbriae antigens of K. pneumoniae were predicted and evaluated as potential vaccine candidates. Both CD8þ (class I) and CD4þ (class II) T-cellspecific epitopes were predicted and the epitopes similar to human proteome were excluded.
Subsequently, the windows of class-II epitopes containing class-I epitopes were determined. The
immunogenicity, IFN-c production and population coverage were also estimated. Using the 3D structure of HLA and epitopes, molecular docking was carried out. Two best epitopes were selected for
molecular dynamics studies. Our prediction and analyses resulted in the several dominant epitopes for
each antigen. The docking results showed that all selected epitopes can bind to their restricted HLA
molecules with high affinity. The molecular dynamics results indicated the stability of system with minimum possible deviation, suggesting the selected epitopes can be promising candidates for stably
binding to HLA molecules. Altogether, our results suggest that the selected T-cell-specific epitopes of
K. pneumoniae fimbriae antigens, particularly the two epitopes confirmed by molecular dynamics, can
be applied for vaccine development. However, the in vitro and in vivo studies are required to authenticate the results of the present study
