Role of Immunoinformatics in Accelerating Epitope-Based Vaccine Development against Dengue Virus

Abstract

Dengue Fever (DF) has emerged as a significant public health problem of international concern with its high prevalence in the tropic and subtropical regions. Dengue Virus (DENV), which is the cause of DF, consists of four serotypes of antigenically distinct viruses. The immense variation and limited identity similarity at the amino acid level lead to a problematic challenge in the development of an efficacious vaccine. Fortunately, the extensively available immunological data, the advance in antigenic peptide prediction, and the incorporation of molecular docking and dynamics simulation in immunoinformatics have directed the vaccine development towards the rational design of the epitope-based vaccine. Here, we point out the current state of dengue epidemiology and the recent development in vaccine development. Subsequently, we provide a systematic review of our validated method and tools for B- and T-cell epitope prediction as well as the use of molecular docking and dynamics in evaluating epitope affinity and stability in the discovery of a new tetravalent dengue vaccine through computational epitope-based vaccine design.

Emerging Mosquito-Borne Viruses Linked toAedes aegyptiandAedes albopictus: Global Status and Preventive Strategies

“…One commercially available vaccine version, chimeric yellow fever 17D-tetravalent dengue vaccine (CYD-TDV)-sold under the brand name Dengvaxia (Guy et al 2010), is registered in 20 dengue endemic countries, and more recently also by the regulatory authorities of the European Union (EU) and United States. However, the immunization implementation has been limited to subnational public health programs only in two countries, Brazil and the Philippines (Alkaff et al 2020).…”