Multi-epitope vaccine design for hepatitis E virus based on protein ORF2 and ORF3

Qiong Lu; Hao Wu; Jing Meng; Jiangyuan Wang; Jiajing Wu; Shuo Liu; Jincheng Tong; Jianhui Nie; Weijin Huang

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2024.1372069

Multi-epitope vaccine design for hepatitis E virus based on protein ORF2 and ORF3

Front Microbiol. 2024 Mar 21:15:1372069. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1372069. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Qiong Lu¹, Hao Wu^{1

2}, Jing Meng³, Jiangyuan Wang⁴, Jiajing Wu⁵, Shuo Liu^{6

7}, Jincheng Tong¹, Jianhui Nie¹, Weijin Huang¹

Affiliations

¹ Division of HIV/AIDS and Sex-transmitted Virus Vaccines, Institute for Biological Product Control, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control and WHO Collaborating Center for Standardization and Evaluation of Biologicals, Beijing, China.
² Wuhan Institute of Biological Products Co., Ltd., Wuhan, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Common Mechanism Research for Major Diseases, Suzhou Institute of Systems Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China.
⁴ Guangzhou National Laboratory, Guangzhou, China.
⁵ Research and Development Department, Beijing Yunling Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Beijing, China.
⁶ Changping Laboratory, Beijing, China.
⁷ Graduate School of Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Introduction: Hepatitis E virus (HEV), with heightened virulence in immunocompromised individuals and pregnant women, is a pervasive threat in developing countries. A globaly available vaccine against HEV is currently lacking.

Methods: We designed a multi-epitope vaccine based on protein ORF2 and ORF3 of HEV using immunoinformatics.

Results: The vaccine comprised 23 nontoxic, nonallergenic, soluble peptides. The stability of the docked peptide vaccine-TLR3 complex was validated by molecular dynamic simulations. The induction of effective cellular and humoral immune responses by the multi-peptide vaccine was verified by simulated immunization.

Discussion: These findings provide a foundation for future HEV vaccine studies.

Keywords: HEV; ORF2; ORF3; multi-epitope; vaccine.

Grants and funding

The authors declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2023YFC2307900).