Deciphering the Immunogenicity of Monkeypox Proteins for Designing the Potential mRNA Vaccine

Abstract

The Monkeypox virus (MPXV), an orthopox virus, is responsible for monkeypox in humans, a zoonotic disease similar to smallpox. This infection first appeared in the 1970s in humans and then in 2003, after which it kept on spreading all around the world. To date, various antivirals have been used to cure this disease, but now, MPXV has developed resistance against these, thus increasing the need for an alternative cure for this deadly disease. In this study, we devised a reverse vaccinology approach against MPXV using a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine by pinning down the antigenic proteins of this virus. By using bioinformatic tools, we predicted prospective immunogenic B and T lymphocyte epitopes. Based on cytokine inducibility score, nonallergenicity, nontoxicity, antigenicity, and conservancy, the final epitopes were selected. Our analysis revealed the stable structure of the mRNA vaccine and its efficient expression in host cells. Furthermore, strong interactions were demonstrated with toll-like receptors 2 (TLR2) and 4 (TLR4) according to the molecular dynamic simulation studies. The in silico immune simulation analyses revealed an overall increase in the immune responses following repeated exposure to the designed vaccine. Based on our findings, the vaccine candidate designed in this study has the potential to be tested as a promising novel mRNA therapeutic vaccine against MPXV infection.

Development of a subunit vaccine against the cholangiocarcinoma causing Opisthorchis viverrini: a computational approach

“…This is significantly complexed with the inclusion of loop regions including epitopes, linker sequences and adjuvant attached at the N-terminal of the designed vaccine construct. This substantial fluctuation tendency is consistent with previous study findings and lends support to the notion of structural dynamics in this setting ( 57 ). RMSF can be used to characterize local modifications along the protein chain.…”

“…It is essential to analyze the similarity between designed vaccine and human proteins. The reason is that any similarity among them can result in auto-immune reaction in the host ( 57 ). This similarity analysis was accomplished by pBLAST of the vaccine construct against the human proteome, which was obtained from the UniProt database.…”

Identification of Novel Quinolone and Quinazoline Alkaloids as Phosphodiesterase 10A Inhibitors for Parkinson’s Disease through a Computational Approach

“…The presence of naturally flexible regions can be the reason for the observed increased fluctuations in the rms values in the complexes. This noticeable fluctuation pattern supports the idea of structural dynamics in this situation and is in line with the results of earlier research …”

“…This noticeable fluctuation pattern supports the idea of structural dynamics in this situation and is in line with the results of earlier research. 65 …”