Novel multi epitope-based vaccine against monkeypox virus: vaccinomic approach

Abstract

While mankind is still dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, a case of monkeypox virus (MPXV) has been reported to the WHO on May 7, 2022. Monkeypox is a viral zoonotic disease that has been a public health threat, particularly in Africa. However, it has recently expanded to other parts of the world, so it may soon become a global issue. Thus, the current work was planned and then designed a multi-epitope vaccine against MPXV utilizing the cell surface-binding protein as a target in order to develop a novel and safe vaccine that can evoke the desirable immunological response. The proposed MHC-I, MHC-II, and B-cell epitopes were selected to design multi-epitope vaccine constructs linked with suitable linkers in combination with different adjuvants to enhance the immune responses for the vaccine constructs. The proposed vaccine was composed of 275 amino acids and was shown to be antigenic in Vaxijen server (0.5311) and non-allergenic in AllerTop server. The 3D structure of the designed vaccine was predicted, refined and validated by various in silico tools to assess the stability of the vaccine. Moreover, the solubility of the vaccine construct was found greater than the average solubility provided by protein-Sol server which indicating the solubility of the vaccine construct. Additionally, the most promising epitopes bound to MHC I and MHC II alleles were found having good binding affinities with low energies ranging between − 7.0 and − 8.6 kcal/mol. According to the immunological simulation research, the vaccine was found to elicit a particular immune reaction against the monkeypox virus. Finally, the molecular dynamic study shows that the designed vaccine is stable with minimum RMSF against MHC I allele. We conclude from our research that the cell surface-binding protein is one of the primary proteins involved in MPXV pathogenesis. As a result, our study will aid in the development of appropriate therapeutics and prompt the development of future vaccines against MPXV.

Integration: Gospel for immune bioinformatician on epitope-based therapy

“…Most studies on bioinformatics exploration of peptide-based therapeutics lacked validation of relevant results ( 32 – 34 ). This may be related to the time- and resource-consuming experimental conditions.…”

Developing a multiepitope vaccine for the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 and monkeypox virus co-infection: A reverse vaccinology analysis

“…An ideal peptide-based vaccine designed using bio- and immunoinformatics methods should have good immunogenicity and antigenicity, be non-toxic, and non-allergenic. Furthermore, it can induce a robust immune response without causing side effects [87] , [88] . Our results demonstrate that S7M8 is a promising vaccine with good antigenicity, immunogenicity, non-toxicity, and non-sensitization.…”

“…These results suggest that the S7M8 vaccine is a promising vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 and MPXV prevention. This vaccine has several advantages: (1) the S7M8 vaccine has excellent antigenicity, immunogenicity, non-toxicity, non-sensitization, stability, and solubility; (2) the S7M8 vaccine contained the PADRE helper peptide, TLR2 agonist Pam2Cys, and TLR4 agonist RS-09, which could target APCs such as macrophages to initiate innate immune responses, induce B lymphocytes to secrete high levels of specific antibodies, and activate CD4 + and CD8 + T lymphocytes to produce high levels of cytokines such as IFN-γ and IL-2; (3) in contrast to the original peptide molecules for the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 or MPXV alone, the new peptide molecule S7M8 constructed herein was selected with due reference to the immunodominant antigens selected during the construction of the existing vaccines in the selection of the preparative antigens [88] . This study confirmed that S7M8 provided a protective effect for the host in the case of either SARS-CoV-2 or MPXV infection alone or in the case of co-infection.…”

In silico formulation of a next-generation multiepitope vaccine for use as a prophylactic candidate against Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever

“…Moreover, another pivotal physical property of the candidate vaccine is solubility. Therefore, the designed vaccine was considered for predicting the solubility property by utilizing a solubility assessing tool for determining the solubility quality to become soluble inside the E. coli host [ 97 ]. Our predicted candidate vaccine passed this parameter.…”