Mycoplasma pneumoniae is the most common pathogen of community-acquired pneumonia in humans. Due to its high rates of antibiotic resistance, vaccination has become the best method to control the dissemination of M. pneumoniae. The recombinant carboxyl terminus of the P1 (P1C) protein is an immunodominant antigen, but it has negative effects such as poor stability and lower purity. In the current study, T-B epitopes of the P1C protein were predicted according to bioinformatics analysis and assessed for efficacy in peptide vaccination. BALB/c mice were subcutaneously inoculated with the T-B epitope peptides four times and then infected with M. pneumoniae through the respiratory tract. The results showed that the T-B epitope peptides of the P1C protein (P1C_103-117, P1C_155-169, P1C_224-238 and P1C_244-258) induced strong antigen-specific serum antibody responses and cellular immune responses with high levels of serum IgG, IgA antibodies and Th1-biased (IFN-γ and IL-2) cytokines. Immunization with T-B epitope peptides significantly reduced the M. pneumoniae burden and the degree of inflammation in the challenged mice. Furthermore, the levels of IFN-γ and TNF-α in the supernatants of lung homogenates were observably reduced compared to those in the PBS group. Overall, our findings demonstrate that T-B epitopes (P1C_103-117, P1C_155-169, P1C_224-238 and P1C_244-258) play significant roles in the P1C protein and can be used to induce powerful humoral and cellular immune responses to provide significant protection against M. pneumoniae pulmonary infection, which provides new insight into the design of potential multiepitope vaccines to prevent host infection by M. pneumoniae.

肺炎支原体是人类社区获得性肺炎最常见的病原体。由于其抗生素耐药率高，疫苗接种已成为控制肺炎支原体传播的最佳方法。P1（P1C）蛋白的重组羧基末端是一种免疫显性抗原，但存在稳定性差、纯度低等负面影响。在目前的研究中，根据生物信息学分析预测了 P1C 蛋白的 TB 表位，并评估了肽疫苗接种的功效。BALB/c小鼠皮下接种TB表位肽4次，然后通过呼吸道感染肺炎支原体。结果表明，P1C蛋白的TB表位肽（P1C_103-117、P1C _155-169、P1C _224-238和 P1C _244-258 ) 诱导强抗原特异性血清抗体反应和细胞免疫反应，具有高水平的血清 IgG、IgA 抗体和 Th1 偏倚（IFN-γ 和 IL -2) 细胞因子。用 TB 表位肽进行免疫显着降低了受感染小鼠的肺炎支原体负担和炎症程度。此外，与 PBS 组相比，肺匀浆上清液中的 IFN-γ 和 TNF-α 水平明显降低。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，TB 表位（P1C _103-117、P1C _155-169、P1C _224-238和 P1C _244-258) 在 P1C 蛋白中发挥重要作用，可用于诱导强大的体液和细胞免疫反应，以提供针对肺炎支原体肺部感染的显着保护，这为设计预防肺炎支原体感染宿主的潜在多表位疫苗提供了新的见解.