Review New ways to identify novel bacterial antigens for vaccine development Abdolreza (Reza) Movahedi, David J. Hampson * School of Veterinary and Biomedical Science, Murdoch University, South Street, Murdoch, Western Australia 6150, Australia Received 27 September 2007; received in revised form 7 February 2008; accepted 8 February 2008 Abstract This article provides an overview of developments in approaches to identify novel bacterial components for use in recombinant subunit vaccines. In particular it describes the processes involved in ‘‘reversevaccinology’’, and some associated complementary technologies such as proteomics that can be used in the identification of new and potentially useful vaccine antigens. Results obtained from the application of these new methods are forming a basis for a new generation of vaccines for use in the control of bacterial infections of humans and animals. # 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Bacteria; Vaccines; Reverse vaccinology; Genomics; Proteomics Contents 1. Introduction ...................................................................... 2 2. Conventional approaches to bacterial vaccine development ...................................... 2 3. New approaches to vaccine development .................................................. 3 4. The application of reverse vaccinology in vaccine design ....................................... 5 5. Genome-based approaches: strategies in selecting protective antigens............................... 6 5.1. In silico analysis for detection of virulence factors ....................................... 6 5.2. In silico analysis for detection of secreted or surface-associated proteins ....................... 7 5.3. In silico analysis for prediction of T cell and B cell epitopes ............................... 7 5.4. Functional genomics in vaccine design ............................................... 7 5.4.1. Proteomics............................................................. 8 5.4.2. DNA microarray analysis .................................................. 9 www.elsevier.com/locate/vetmic Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Veterinary Microbiology 131 (2008) 1–13 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 8 9360 2287; fax: +61 8 9310 4144. E-mail address: d.hampson@murdoch.edu.au (D.J. Hampson). 0378-1135/$ – see front matter # 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.vetmic.2008.02.011