Immunoinformatics approach to design next-generation epitope-based peptide vaccine against Peste des Petits Ruminants Virus (PPRV)

Abstract

PPR is a small ruminant infectious illness that is wreaking havoc on economies in South Asia and Africa. Due to several hurdles, such as resistant strains and a limited regulatory framework, existing therapeutic vaccinations have failed to eradicate the disease. To overcome these challenges, a peptide-based vaccination with distinct immunological characteristics and less vulnerability to contamination, autoimmunity, and inflammatory diseases would be useful in accomplishing the suggested eradication goal. The possible CTL and B-cell epitopes of PPRV's four immunogenic proteins (H, F, M, and N) were predicted using a variety of immunoinformatic methods. Protein-protein docking confirmed that the proposed chimeric vaccine has a considerable affinity for the ovine toll-like receptor. In a biological system, the molecular dynamic simulation confirmed the in vivo stability of the protein. The immune simulation predicted the induction of immunoglobulins, interleukins, interferons, helper T cells, and cytotoxic T cells, which is critical for boosting host immunity during infection. Moreover, the translation efficiency was verified through in silico cloning of the vaccine in a bacterial expression system following codon optimization. Thus, our findings suggest that the candidate vaccine will help in provoking a robust and long-lasting immunity in animals against PPRV infection.