Computer-aided designing of a novel multi‑epitope DNA vaccine against severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus

• Published in: BMC infectious diseases Vol. 24; no. 1; pp. 476 - 12
• Main Authors: Tao, Yiran, Zhang, Yu, Li, Yumeng, Liu, Qiao, Zhu, Jin, Ji, Minjun, Feng, Gaoqian, Xu, Zhipeng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London BioMed Central 07.05.2024; BioMed Central Ltd; BMC
• Subjects: Analysis; Animals; Antigenic determinants; Autophagy; B cells; Bioinformatics; CAD-CAM systems; Care and treatment; Causes of; CD4 antigen; CD8 antigen; Cellular immune responses; Complications and side effects; Computational Biology; Computer programs; Computer-Aided Design; Cytokines; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; DNA vaccine; DNA vaccines; DNA-directed RNA polymerase; Dosage and administration; Epitopes; Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte - genetics; Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte - immunology; Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte - genetics; Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte - immunology; Fever; Genetic vectors; Genomes; Genomics; Glycoproteins; Health aspects; Humans; Hyperthermia; Immune response; Immune system; Immunology; Infections; Infectious Diseases; Internal Medicine; Lymphocytes; Lymphocytes T; Medical Microbiology; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mortality; Neglected tropical diseases; Parasitology; Phlebovirus - genetics; Phlebovirus - immunology; Prevention; Proteins; Public health; pVAX1; Ribonucleic acid; Risk factors; RNA; RNA polymerase; RNA-directed RNA polymerase; Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome; Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome - immunology; Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome - prevention & control; Simulation; T cells; Thrombocytopenia; Tick-borne diseases; Toxicity; Tropical Medicine; Vaccines; Vaccines, DNA - genetics; Vaccines, DNA - immunology; Viral diseases; Viral Vaccines - genetics; Viral Vaccines - immunology; Viruses; Zoonoses; China; DNA vaccine; Cellular immune responses; Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome; Bioinformatics; pVAX1
• ISSN: 1471-2334; 1471-2334
• DOI: 10.1186/s12879-024-09361-6

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging tick-borne viral disease caused by the SFTS virus ( Dabie bandavirus ), which has become a substantial risk to public health. No specific treatment is available now, that calls for an effective vaccine. Given this, we aimed to develop a multi-epitope DNA vaccine through the help of bioinformatics. The final DNA vaccine was inserted into a special plasmid vector pVAX1, consisting of CD8 + T cell epitopes, CD4 + T cell epitopes and B cell epitopes (six epitopes each) screened from four genome-encoded proteins——nuclear protein (NP), glycoprotein (GP), RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), as well as nonstructural protein (NSs). To ascertain if the predicted structure would be stable and successful in preventing infection, an immunological simulation was run on it. In conclusion, we designed a multi-epitope DNA vaccine that is expected to be effective against Dabie bandavirus , but in vivo trials are needed to verify this claim.