Cloning and Molecular Characterization of the Recombinant CVB4E2 Immunogenic Viral Protein (rVP1), as a Potential Subunit Protein for Vaccine and Immunodiagnostic Reagent Candidate

Abstract

The aim of the present study was, first, to clone the VP1 gene of the human coxsackievirus B4 strain E2 (CVB4E2) in the prokaryotic pUC19 plasmid expression vector then to compare it with the structural capsid proteins of the same strain using bioinformatic tools. PCR colony amplification followed through a restriction digestion analysis and sequencing process which affirmed the success of the cloning process. SDS-PAGE and Western Blotting were used to characterize the purified recombinant viral protein expressed in bacteria cells. The BLASTN tool revealed that the nucleotide sequence of the recombinant VP1 (rVP1) expressed by pUC19 highly matched the target nucleotide sequence of the diabetogenic CVB4E2 strain. Secondary structure and three-dimension structure prediction suggested that rVP1, such as wild-type VP1, is chiefly composed of random coils and a high percentage of exposed amino acids. Linear B-cell epitope prediction showed that several antigenic epitopes are likely present in rVP1 and CVB4E2 VP1 capsid protein. Additionally, phosphorylation site prediction revealed that both proteins may affect the signal transduction of host cells and can be involved in virus virulence. The present work highlights the usefulness of cloning and bioinformatics characterizations for gene investigation. Furthermore, the collected data are helpful for future experimental research related to the development of immunodiagnostic reagents and subunit vaccines based on the expression of immunogenic viral capsid proteins.

T-Cell Receptor Sequences Identify Combined Coxsackievirus–Streptococci Infections as Triggers for Autoimmune Myocarditis and Coxsackievirus–Clostridia Infections for Type 1 Diabetes

“…One final implication of this study relates to the development of vaccines against enteroviruses, Streptococci, and Clostridia, both for purposes of infection prevention and also for the specific prevention of diabetes and myocarditis. Substantial research is being devoted to developing coxsackievirus vaccines [201][202][203][204], some specifically for the prevention of diabetes [205][206][207][208][209], and some specifically for the prevention of myocarditis [210][211][212][213][214]. Extensive research is also ongoing toward the development of Clostridia vaccines [215][216][217][218][219][220]; however, the connection of Clostridia to diabetes is too recent to have resulted in any of these vaccines being purposed specifically toward the prevention of diabetes.…”