Super epitope dengue vaccine instigated serotype independent immune protection in-silico

Shovan Naskar; Hitesh Harsukhbhai Chandpa; Shalini Agarwal; Jairam Meena

doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.04.009

Super epitope dengue vaccine instigated serotype independent immune protection in-silico

Vaccine. 2024 Apr 13:S0264-410X(24)00423-7. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.04.009. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Shovan Naskar¹, Hitesh Harsukhbhai Chandpa¹, Shalini Agarwal¹, Jairam Meena²

Affiliations

¹ ImmunoEngineering and Therapeutics Laboratory, Department of Pharmaceutical Engineering and Technology, Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi 221005, India.
² ImmunoEngineering and Therapeutics Laboratory, Department of Pharmaceutical Engineering and Technology, Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi 221005, India. Electronic address: jairam.phe@itbhu.ac.in.

PMID: 38616437
DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.04.009

Abstract

Dengue becomes the most common life-threatening infectious arbovirus disease globally, with prevalence in the tropical and subtropical areas. The major clinical features include dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS), a condition of hypovolemic shock. Four different serotypes of the dengue virus, known as dengue virus serotype (DENV)- 1, 2, 3 and 4 can infect humans. Only one vaccine is available in the market, named Dengvaxia by Sanofi Pasteur, but there is no desired outcome of this treatment due the antibody dependent enhancement (ADE) of the multiple dengue serotypes. As of now, there is no cure against dengue disease. Our goal in this work was to create a subunit vaccine based on several epitopes that would be effective against every serotype of the dengue virus. Here, computational methods like- immunoinformatics and bioinformatics were implemented to find out possible dominant epitopes. A total of 21 epitopes were chosen using various in-silico techniques from the expected 133 major histocompatibility complex (MHC)- I and major histocompatibility complex (MHC)- II epitopes, along with 95 B-cell epitopes which were greatly conserved. Immune stimulant, non-allergenic and non-toxic immunodominant epitopes (super epitopes) with a suitable adjuvant (Heparin-Binding Hemagglutinin Adhesin, HBHA) were used to construct the vaccine. Following the physicochemical analysis, vaccine construct was docked with Toll-like receptors (TLRs) to predict the immune stimulation. Consequently, the optimal docked complex that demonstrated the least amount of ligand-receptor complex deformability was used to conduct the molecular dynamics analysis. By following the codon optimization, the final vaccine molecule was administered into an expressing vector to perform in-silico cloning. The robust immune responses were generated in the in-silico immune simulation analysis. Hence, this study provides a hope to control the dengue infections. For validation of the immune outcomes, in-vitro as well as in-vivo investigations are essential.

Keywords: Bioinformatics; Dengue infection; Epitopes; Immunoinformatics; In-silico; Vaccine.