Immunoinformatics-guided approach for designing a pan-proteome multi-epitope subunit vaccine against African swine fever virus

Abstract

Despite being identified over a hundred years ago, there is still no commercially available vaccine for the highly contagious and deadly African swine fever virus (ASFV). This study used immunoinformatics for the rapid and inexpensive designing of a safe and effective multi-epitope subunit vaccine for ASFV. A total of 18,858 proteins from 100 well-annotated ASFV proteomes were screened using various computational tools to identify potential epitopes, or peptides capable of triggering an immune response in swine. Proteins from genotypes I and II were prioritized for their involvement in the recent global ASFV outbreaks. The screened epitopes exhibited promising qualities that positioned them as effective components of the ASFV vaccine. They demonstrated antigenicity, immunogenicity, and cytokine-inducing properties indicating their ability to induce potent immune responses. They have strong binding affinities to multiple swine allele receptors suggesting a high likelihood of yielding more amplified responses. Moreover, they were non-allergenic and non-toxic, a crucial prerequisite for ensuring safety and minimizing any potential adverse effects when the vaccine is processed within the host. Integrated with an immunogenic 50S ribosomal protein adjuvant and linkers, the epitopes formed a 364-amino acid multi-epitope subunit vaccine. The ASFV vaccine construct exhibited notable immunogenicity in immune simulation and molecular docking analyses, and stable profiles in secondary and tertiary structure assessments. Moreover, this study designed an optimized codon for efficient translation of the ASFV vaccine construct into the Escherichia coli K-12 expression system using the pET28a(+) vector. Overall, both sequence and structural evaluations suggested the potential of the ASFV vaccine construct as a candidate for controlling and eradicating outbreaks caused by the pathogen.

Immunoinformatics approach for designing a multi-epitope subunit vaccine against porcine epidemic diarrhea virus genotype IIA spike protein

“…The final construct was docked using the ClusPro server. The TLR4- fMEVc complex had the highest binding affinity at a ΔG of −18.6 kcal/mol compared to the controls, TLR4- Brucella lumzaine synthase, and TLR4- M. tuberculosis RpfE and TLR4- S. pneumoniae DnaJ, with a binding energy of −9.9 kcal/mol, −9.7 kcal/mol, and −13.1 kcal/mol, respectively ( Simbulan et al ., 2024 ). Ligplot and PDBsum predicted 24 hydrogen bonds between the vaccine construct and TLR4 ( Fig.…”

A novel chimeric vaccine containing multiple epitopes for simulating robust immune activation against Klebsiella pneumoniae

“…The primary benefit of this technology is its ability to detect many candidate vaccinations without spreading bacterial illnesses across a wet laboratory [ 22 ]. Several instances of how vaccinosis has been used to construct a multi-epitope-based vaccination method include Acinetobacter baumannii [ 16 ], MERS-CoV, HIV, and SARS-CoV-2 [ 22 – 25 ].…”

“…Recent studies have shown the beneficial use of RV, highlighting the need for vaccination as a preventive and cost-effective strategy against this virus. Researchers used reverse vaccinology and subtractive proteomics techniques in this study to ascertain prospective therapeutic interventions for A. baumannii [ 11 , 16 , 43 ]. The recombinant chimeric peptide vaccine demonstrated a 50% efficacy in hamsters against the pathogen during recent in vitro testing [ 12 ].…”

“…Other approaches, like pang-genomics, immunoinformatic, and biophysical studies, may be used with the RV methodology to create a distinct multi-epitope polypeptide [ 14 , 15 ]. After prioritizing different epitopes, a pan-proteome screening approach was used to ascertain the essential vaccination proteins [ 16 ]. Furthermore, the host immune system was guaranteed to accurately identify and handle the chosen epitopes, which are crucial for the pathogen’s survival and do not have any similar structures in humans.…”

In silico identification of multi-target inhibitors from medicinal fungal metabolites against the base excision repair pathway proteins of African swine fever virus

“…7 Due to its high morbidity and mortality rates, the disease has resulted in substantial economic losses and presents an ongoing threat to food security, particularly in developing countries. 8,9 There is neither a cure nor vaccine commercially available for ASF, 2,10 and its control relies solely on biosecurity protocols, such as animal quarantine and culling of infected swine. 2,11 However, these methods entail negative economic implications.…”