Design of a novel and potent multivalent epitope based human cytomegalovirus peptide vaccine: An immunoinformatics approach

Abstract

Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is one of the most common causes of congenital infections globally. They infect the fetus and cause severe birth defects such as hearing loss, complications in the eyes, epilepsy, autism, and various other neurological disorders. They are also the leading cause of death in patients with compromised immunity. Due to the prevalence and severity of the virus, the United States National Academy of Medicine has announced the development of the HCMV vaccine as a matter of high priority for public health. Hence, this study is focused on designing a novel potent multi-epitope HCMV vaccine. The envelope glycoproteins B, H, L and M of HCMV were targeted to predict T cell (both Helper and Cytotoxic) epitopes that were non-toxic, highly antigenic, and non-allergenic and could induce interferon-γ production. Further, the selected epitopes were subjected to molecular docking and population coverage analysis. Eventually, using the two best epitopes and adjuvants like RS09, flagellin protein and PADRE sequence a 283 amino acid long vaccine was designed. The vaccine is antigenic, non-allergenic, stable, and soluble. The 3D model of the vaccine was developed and validated using the Ramachandran plot. Docking with Toll-like receptor 5 (TLR5) molecule and molecular dynamics simulation confirmed the stability of the vaccine. In silico cloning simulation using pET28a (+) vector showed that the vaccine can be successfully cloned and expressed in E. coli K12 strain. However, the efficacy and the safety of the vaccine need to be further validated by in vivo studies.