Abstract
Epstein–Barr virus (EBV), also known as human herpesvirus 4 (HHV-4), is a member of the Herpesviridae family and causes infectious mononucleosis, Burkitt’s lymphoma, and nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Even in the United States of America, the situation is alarming, as EBV affects 95% of the young population between 35 and 40 years of age. In this study, both linear and conformational B-cell epitopes as well as cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes were predicted by using the ElliPro and NetCTL.1.2 webservers for EBV proteins (GH, GL, GB, GN, GM, GP42 and GP350). Molecular modelling tools were used to predict the 3D coordinates of peptides, and these peptides were then docked against the MHC molecules to obtain peptide-MHC complexes. Studies of their post-docking interactions helped to select potential candidates for the development of peptide vaccines. Our results predicted a total of 58 T-cell epitopes of EBV; where the most potential were selected based on their TAP, MHC binding and C-terminal Cleavage score. The top most peptides were subjected to MD simulation and stability analysis. Validation of our predicted epitopes using a 0.45 µM concentration was carried out by using a systems biology approach. Our results suggest a panel of epitopes that could be used to immunize populations to protect against multiple diseases caused by EBV.
Highlights
Epstein–Barr virus (EBV), known as human herpesvirus 4 (HHV-4), is a member of the Herpesviridae family and is one of the eight known types of human herpesvirus
EBV glycoprotein B is important for viral fusion events with B cells[14]
We checked if the epitopes are antigenic or not using the online server AntigenPro[35]
Summary
Epstein–Barr virus (EBV), known as human herpesvirus 4 (HHV-4), is a member of the Herpesviridae family and is one of the eight known types of human herpesvirus. From 2006 to 2015, several clinical trials were conducted to develop vaccines; an EBV vaccine, phase 2 trial, from gp[350] protein has been testified. This vaccine reduced the rate of Infectious Mononucleosis (IM) but not virus infection[7]. The fusion of the B-cell membrane and the outer viral envelope of the EBV virion requires functional spicule glycoproteins such as GH, GL, and gp4217. The use of computational tools contribute greatly in biology designing in silico vaccine, prediction of T-cell epitope is crucial which does reduce the cost and the necessity for experimental results[24]. Likewise molecular docking algorithms scoring functions of different conformers to design new drug candidates
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