Abstract
Lassa virus (LASV) is an arena virus causing hemorrhagic fever and it is endemic in several regions of West Africa. The disease-causing virus records high mortality rate in endemic regions due to lack of appropriate treatment and prevention strategies. Therefore, it is of interest to design and develop viable vaccine components against the virus. We used the Lassa virus envelope glyco-proteins as a vaccine target to identify linear peptides as potential epitopes with immunogenic properties by computer aided epitope prediction tools. We report a T-cell epitope 'LLGTFTWTL' and a B-cell epitope 'AELKCFGNTAVAKCNE' with predicted potential immunogenicity for further in vivo and in vitro consideration.
Highlights
Lassa virus is a single-stranded, enveloped, bi-segmented, ambisense RNA virus belonging to Arenaviridae virus family [1]
Identification of conserved regions in antigen sequences: A total of 12 sequences of glycoproteins from different isolates of Lassa virus (LASV) have been retrieved from GenBank at NCBI (Table S1)
Transmembrane Topology Determination: TMHMM v2.0 prediction analysis revealed that 6 conserved regions of envelope glycoproteins fulfilled the criteria of outer membrane characteristics (Table S2)
Summary
Lassa virus is a single-stranded, enveloped, bi-segmented, ambisense RNA virus belonging to Arenaviridae virus family [1] It causes severe forms of acute viral hemorrhagic fever known as Lassa hemorrhagic fever, endemic in regions of West Africa [2]. LASV was first identified in Lassa village, Borno State at the northeastern region of Nigeria in 1969 [4] This zoonotic virus exhibits persistent, asymptomatic infection with profuse urinary virus excretion in Mastomys natalensis, the ubiquitous and highly commensal rodent host [2]. Sexual transmission has been reported and pregnant patients with Lassa fever results in spontaneous abortions [6] Both sexes and all age groups of people appear to be affected by this virus and there is no epidemiological evidence supporting airborne spread between humans (WHO, 2017)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
