Identification of B-cell epitopes on structural proteins VP1 and VP2 of Senecavirus A and development of a multi-epitope recombinant protein vaccine

Abstract

Senecavirus A (SVA) is an important pathogenic cause of vesicular disease in pigs worldwide. In this study, we screened the B-cell epitopes of SVA using a bioinformatics approach combined with an overlapping synthetic polypeptide method. Four dominant B-cell epitopes (at amino acid (aa) positions: 7–26, 48–74, 92–109, and 129–144) from the VP1 protein and five dominant B-cell epitopes (aa: 38–57, 145–160, 154–172, 193–208, 249–284) from the VP2 protein were identified. Multi-epitope genes comprising the identified B-cell epitope domains were synthesized, prokaryotic expressed, and purified, and their immune protection efficacy was evaluated in piglets. Our results showed that the multi-epitope recombinant protein rP2 induced higher neutralizing antibodies and provided 80% protection against homologous SVA challenge. Thus, the B-cell epitope peptides identified in this study are potential candidates for SVA vaccine development, and rP2 may offer safety and efficacy in controlling infectious SVA.