Designing epitope-based vaccines against Nipah virus Glyco and Fusion proteins using integrated immunoinformatics and structural modeling techniques

Abstract

Nipah virus (NiV) is a re-emerging zoonotic virus belonging to the Paramyxoviridae family that results in significant neurological damage and raises fatality rates. NiV is classified as a stage III pathogen with a high likelihood of transmission to humans, causing outbreaks intermittently and without any predictable pattern. In Bangladesh, outbreaks of NiV have happened every year since 2001. Even though the disease is severe, no antiviral medications exist for NiV infections. As a consequence, developing a vaccine is crucial. The present research aims to predict an effective epitope-based vaccine by applying immunoinformatic techniques against the fusion and glycoprotein of the Nipah virus. Fusion and glycoproteins were obtained from the UniProt protein database and screened for the T and B cell epitopes using the IEDB and ABCpred servers. Moreover, the constructed 3D structure of the NiV vaccine was occupied with Toll-like receptor 4 for molecular docking and dynamic (MD) simulation studies. Finally, the vaccine design was validated for expression in the PET28a (+) vector of Escherichia coli, and immunological simulations were also conducted. After determination of the allergenicity, antigenicity, and toxicity, the non-allergenic, nontoxic, antigenic, and immunogenic epitopes were used to construct the vaccine with adjuvants and an appropriate linker, including AAY, GPGPG, and KK. The constructed NiV vaccine was confirmed based on its physicochemical properties and docking scores for further analysis. The MD simulations indicated a stabilized structure and increased duration of epitope visibility, indicating strong immune responses. Furthermore, codon optimization and in silico cloning were used to verify bacterial expression of the developed NiV vaccine in E. coli. The results showed that NiV can increase immune responses against the Nipah virus. Furthermore, in vitro and in vivo research and clinical studies are recommended to establish the findings of this study.