Immunoinformatics Approach for Epitope-Based Peptide Vaccine Design and Active Site Prediction against Polyprotein of Emerging Oropouche Virus

Abstract

Oropouche virus (OROV) is an emerging pathogen which causes Oropouche fever and meningitis in humans. Several outbreaks of OROV in South America, especially in Brazil, have changed its status as an emerging disease, but no vaccine or specific drug target is available yet. Our approach was to identify the epitope-based vaccine candidates as well as the ligand-binding pockets through the use of immunoinformatics. In this report, we identified both T-cell and B-cell epitopes of the most antigenic OROV polyprotein with the potential to induce both humoral and cell-mediated immunity. Eighteen highly antigenic and immunogenic CD8+ T-cell epitopes were identified, including three 100% conserved epitopes (TSSWGCEEY, CSMCGLIHY, and LAIDTGCLY) as the potential vaccine candidates. The selected epitopes showed 95.77% coverage for the mixed Brazilian population. The docking simulation ensured the binding interaction with high affinity. A total of five highly conserved and nontoxic linear B-cell epitopes “NQKIDLSQL,” “HPLSTSQIGDRC,” “SHCNLEFTAITADKIMSL,” “PEKIPAKEGWLTFSKEHTSSW,” and “HHYKPTKNLPHVVPRYH” were selected as potential vaccine candidates. The predicted eight conformational B-cell epitopes represent the accessibility for the entered virus. In the posttherapeutic strategy, ten ligand-binding pockets were identified for effective inhibitor design against emerging OROV infection. Collectively, this research provides novel candidates for epitope-based peptide vaccine design against OROV.

Epitope-based chimeric peptide vaccine design against S, M and E proteins of SARS-CoV-2 etiologic agent of global pandemic COVID-19: anin silicoapproach

“…A lower IC 50 value indicates higher binding affinity of the epitopes with the MHC class I and II molecules. While most of the studies 24, 25 reported that a binding affinity (IC 50 ) threshold of 250 nM identifies peptide binders recognized by T-cells, and this threshold can be used to select peptides, we kept binding affinity within 50 nM to get better confidence level in predicting epitopes for MHC-I and MHC-II alleles. The IEDB MHC-I prediction tool retrieved 77 T-cell epitopes in RBD that interacted with 21 possible MHC-I alleles whereas the NTD domain possessed 35 T-cell epitopes with 17 possible MHC-I alleles (Supplementary Data 1).…”

<p>Immunoinformatics and Vaccine Development: An Overview</p>

“…143,144 In another example, sequence analysis of Lassa fever virus (the LASV) and other viruses' immunoproteomic was used to identify the best immunogenic protein predicting T-cell as well as B-cell epitopes and also target sequence and binding sites. 145,146 The SSNLYKGVY peptide sequence at AA41-49 of glycoprotein 1 (produced by the L segment) was the best candidate epitope for the induction of humoral as well as the cell-mediated immunity for Lassa fever vaccine construct. 17 HLA-I and 16 HLA-II molecules have been proven in sizable African populations and their combination with the SSNLYKGVY peptide sequence may prove useful in such Lassa fever virus endemic areas.…”

Structural Basis and Designing of Peptide Vaccine using PE-PGRS Family Protein of Mycobacterium ulcerans – An Integrated Vaccinomics Approach

“…The distribution and expression of HLA alleles vary according to the ethnicities and regions throughout the world (Adhikari, Tayebi, and Rahman 2018), thus, influence the successful development of an epitope-based vaccine ). The population coverage by the designed vaccine was calculated with the IEDB Population Coverage tool .…”