Proteome Based Approach Defines Candidates for Designing a Multitope Vaccine against the Nipah Virus

• Main Authors: Mohamed A. Soltan, Muhammad Alaa Eldeen, Nada Elbassiouny, Ibrahim Mohamed, Dalia A. El-damasy, Eman Fayad, Ola A. Abu Ali, Nermin Raafat, Refaat A. Eid, Ahmed A. Al-Karmalawy
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-08-01
• Series: International Journal of Molecular Sciences
• Subjects: Nipah virus; immunoinformatics; epitope mapping; multitope vaccine
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/17/9330

Nipah virus is one of the most harmful emerging viruses with deadly effects on both humans and animals. Because of the severe outbreaks, in 2018, the World Health Organization focused on the urgent need for the development of effective solutions against the virus. However, up to date, there is no effective vaccine against the Nipah virus in the market. In the current study, the complete proteome of the Nipah virus (nine proteins) was analyzed for the antigenicity score and the virulence role of each protein, where we came up with fusion glycoprotein (F), glycoprotein (G), protein (V), and protein (W) as the candidates for epitope prediction. Following that, the multitope vaccine was designed based on top-ranking CTL, HTL, and BCL epitopes from the selected proteins. We used suitable linkers, adjuvant, and PADRE peptides to finalize the constructed vaccine, which was analyzed for its physicochemical features, antigenicity, toxicity, allergenicity, and solubility. The designed vaccine passed these assessments through computational analysis and, as a final step, we ran a docking analysis between the designed vaccine and TLR-³ and validated the docked complex through molecular dynamics simulation, which estimated a strong binding and supported the nomination of the designed vaccine as a putative solution for Nipah virus. Here, we describe the computational approach for design and analysis of this vaccine.