Abstract
BackgroundNorovirus is the major cause of nonbacterial epidemic gastroenteritis, being highly prevalent in both developing and developed countries. Despite of the available monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) for different sub-genogroups, a comprehensive epitope analysis based on various bioinformatics technology is highly desired for future potential antibody development in clinical diagonosis and treatment.MethodsA total of 18 full-length human norovirus capsid protein sequences were downloaded from GenBank. Protein modeling was performed with program Modeller 9.9. The modeled 3D structures of capsid protein of norovirus were submitted to the protein antigen spatial epitope prediction webserver (SEPPA) for predicting the possible spatial epitopes with the default threshold. The results were processed using the Biosoftware.ResultsCompared with GI, we found that the GII genogroup had four deletions and two special insertions in the VP1 region. The predicted conformational epitope regions mainly concentrated on N-terminal (1~96), Middle Part (298~305, 355~375) and C-terminal (560~570). We find two common epitope regions on sequences for GI and GII genogroup, and also found an exclusive epitope region for GII genogroup.ConclusionsThe predicted conformational epitope regions of norovirus VP1 mainly concentrated on N-terminal, Middle Part and C-terminal. We find two common epitope regions on sequences for GI and GII genogroup, and also found an exclusive epitope region for GII genogroup. The overlapping with experimental epitopes indicates the important role of latest computational technologies. With the fast development of computational immunology tools, the bioinformatics pipeline will be more and more critical to vaccine design.
Highlights
Norovirus is the major cause of nonbacterial epidemic gastroenteritis, being highly prevalent in both developing and developed countries
The predicted conformational epitope regions of norovirus VP1 mainly concentrated on N-terminal, Middle Part and C-terminal
We find two common epitope regions on sequences for GI and GII genogroup, and found an exclusive epitope region for GII genogroup
Summary
Norovirus is the major cause of nonbacterial epidemic gastroenteritis, being highly prevalent in both developing and developed countries. Despite of the low mortality, approximately 50% of all gastroenteritis outbreaks have been reported to be caused by norovirus [1]. It is the major cause of nonbacterial epidemic gastroenteritis in both developing and developed countries [2], since being firstly described in 1968 during an outbreak in an elementary school in Ohio [3]. A 200 kDa polyprotein was encoded by ORF1 which can be autoprocessed by a virally encoded protease to yield the non-structural viral replicase proteins essential for viral replication.
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