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In-Silico Design of a Multi‑epitope Construct Against Influenza A Based on Nucleoprotein Gene

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Abstract

Influenza A virus infections are one of the most important factors that are still considered as global health concerns. The best and most effective defense against these infections is vaccination. Due to the limitations of current vaccines, vaccine design based on bioinformatics methods is receiving a lot of attention. Hence, in the present study, using a novel immunoinformatics methodology, we have intentioned an Influenza multi-epitope vaccine based on the greatly conserved and antigenic epitopes of Influenza virus nucleoprotein. The nucleoprotein (NP) of Influenza A virus displays an essential character in the vital functions of the virus so it can be used as a goal protein for vaccine design. The purpose of this vaccine is to induce humoral and cellular immune responses through epitopes in the np protein against influenza A viruses. Nucleoprotein sequences were analyzed by in-silico tools to predict and identify the most immunogenic B and T cell epitopes. The multi-epitope vaccine was designed using specific and proper linkers. We also explored the physicochemical properties of the planned construct to approve its thermodynamic stability, hydrophilicity, PI, antigenicity, and allergenicity. In addition, the modeled and optimized tertiary structure was predicted to be usable for further procedure. The molecular docking of the TLR3/4 and designed vaccine illustrates engaged binding. Taken together, these outcomes propose that the structure of our multi-epitope vaccine may offer strong immunizations beside dissimilar strains of influenza virus subtypes, thus evading the requirement for yearly vaccine re-formulation.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledgement Pasteur institute of Iran for the financial support.

Funding

This work was supported by Pasteur Institute of Iran (Grant 1137).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, Qom Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qom, Iran

    Samaneh Rostaminia, Seyed Soheil Aghaei & Raziye Nazari

  2. Department of Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses, Pasteur Institute of Iran, 69, Tehran, P.O. Box: 1316943551, Iran

    Behrokh Farahmand & Amir Ghaemi

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  1. Samaneh Rostaminia
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  2. Seyed Soheil Aghaei
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  3. Behrokh Farahmand
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  4. Raziye Nazari
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Correspondence to Seyed Soheil Aghaei or Amir Ghaemi.

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Rostaminia, S., Aghaei, S.S., Farahmand, B. et al. In-Silico Design of a Multi‑epitope Construct Against Influenza A Based on Nucleoprotein Gene. Int J Pept Res Ther 28, 117 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10989-022-10418-w

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