Challenges and prospects of Viral Envelope protein VP28‐based control strategies to combat white spot syndrome virus in penaeid shrimps: a review

Abstract

VP28 is an essential WSSV envelope protein used to develop innate immune recognition in shrimp against WSSV, owing to its remarkable capability to localize on the surface of shrimp epithelial cells. Transgenically engineered viral VP28 protein from several expression systems was used to increase the survival chances of shrimp against WSSV pathogen, and their efficacy was found to last for 2-3 weeks following therapy. Though few reports have shown that DNA vaccination using the VP28 DNA construct is capable of protecting shrimp from WSSV, the exact mechanism behind the immunity is still unknown. Several research groups have provided insights into VP28-driven dsRNA vaccination to protect shrimp against WSSV infection, but the stability attained by many of these vaccines turned out to be short-lived. RNAi treatment with VP28dsRNA, shrimp showed better resistance to the WSSV challenge, although multiple doses of dsRNA are required to provide extended protection for up to 28 days. However, no foolproof protection was currently offered by VP28-based recombinant protein or DNA vaccination against WSSV. In recent years, attention has been directed towards identifying small molecule inhibitors of VP28 through molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation studies and is an emerging approach in drug development and design against WSSV. This review highlights the opportunities, limits and challenges of VP28-based control strategies of White Spot Syndrome Virus, by emphasizing the status quo of current methodological approaches and suggesting future research directions of using it as a potential drug discovery target.

Decapod iridescent virus 1: An emerging viral pathogen in aquaculture

“…It was found that these crayfish exhibited enhanced resistance to WSSV 66 . Following this idea, transgenically engineered VP28 proteins from several expression systems were widely used to increase the survival chances of shrimp against WSSV, and their efficacy was found to last for 2–3 weeks following therapy 67 . In addition, immuno‐stimulation with sequence specific dsRNA gave protection against target viral diseases 68 .…”

Interaction between a Peptide and White Spot Syndrome Virus VP28 Envelope Protein

“…During infection, VP28 serves as a viral binding protein binds to Rab7 protein in shrimp cells and mediates the fusion of virus envelope and host cell membrane, thus helping virus to enter host cells [7] [9], which plays a key role in the early stage of WSSV infection [8]. Therefore, the envelope protein VP28 is an ideal target for screening antiviral drugs [10] In the screening of WSSV antiviral lead compounds, peptide ligands with anti WSSV activity were obtained through phage surface display using VP28 as the target [11] and antibody peptide ligand screening [12] [13] [14]. Especially, Yi et al selected a phage-displayed peptide 2E6 can specifically bound to WSSV, it also had a high specificity and blocked virus infection, with the possible critical motif for virus inhibition being VAVNNSY.…”

Prediction of Interaction Sites of PcRab7-VP28

“…Although the exact mechanism of WSSV virus entry into shrimp is still unknown, it is speculated that the virus entry into host cells is through the interaction between virus envelope protein and host cell receptor [7]. Since the virus enters the host cell through the interaction between the virus envelope protein and the host cell receptor, it is very important for the discovery of interaction blockers, especially for the development of antiviral drugs [8]. Among all of the known structural proteins of WSSV, VP28 is the main envelope [9] protein, encoded by the reading frame wsv421 [10].…”