Prediction of Multi-Epitopic Domains of a Putative Oral Vaccine against Hepatitis C Virus

Abstract

For vaccine development, triggering an immune response is desired. Designing and assessing vaccine candidates for the appropriate immune response is critical for their success. Hepatitis C virus is the major cause of liver disease. Anti HCV vaccines if designed is rational decision to reinforce specific T-cell as a crucial aspect of effective antiviral treatment. This study explored the use of bioinformatics tools by retrieval of twenty (20) HCV proteins which were selected for vaccine design. These were retrieved from UniProt server based on their antigenicity, virulence, subcellular localization, essentiality non-homology and other physical parameters, including, TM helices, and relative molecular mass. BLASTp revealed 80% non-identity with Homo sapiens genes. The Epitopes obtained include: Q3S781_9HEPC52-71, POLG_HCVBK442-461, POLG_HCVJA2-21, POLG_HCVJ177-95, POLG_HCVCO445-464, POLG_HCVR61107-1126, POLG_HCVJP47-66, POLG_HCVTW664-683, POLG_HCVTR446-465, LTOR5_HUMAN23-42, POLG_HCVT5100-119, POLG_HCVJT77-96, HOIL1_HUMAN169-188, POLG_HCVJ4644-663, POLG_HCVJ847-66, TFB2M_HUMAN49-68, RSF1_HUMAN138-157, A8DGK3_9HEPC77-96, A8DHN1_9HEPC54-73, and A8DFL0_9HEPC2-21. An antigenicity score of 0.6004 was obtained with the use of VaxiJen server. The allergenicity prediction showed that the vaccine is not allergenic with the use of AllerTOP v.2.0 and AlgPred servers. The molecular weights and theoretical pI of protein were 45.1 kDa and 10.24 kDa respectively. A potentially suitable vaccine candidate with multivariant regions and immunogenic which could be antagonistic to HCV was designed.