Multi-epitope based vaccine against yellow fever virus applying immunoinformatics approaches

Abstract

Yellow fever disease is considered a re-emerging major health issue which has caused recent outbreaks with a high number of deaths. Tropical countries, mainly African and South American, are the most affected by Yellow fever outbreaks. Despite the availability of an attenuated vaccine, its use is limited for some groups such as pregnant and nursing women, immunocompromised and immunosuppressed patients, elderly people >65 years, infants <6 months and patients with biological disorders like thymus disorders. In order to achieve new preventive measures, we applied immunoinformatics approaches to develop a multi-epitope-based subunit vaccine for Yellow fever virus. Different epitopes, related to humoral and cell-mediated immunity, were predicted for complete polyproteins of two Yellow fever strains (Asibi and 17 D vaccine). Those epitopes common for both strains were mapped into a set of 137 sequences of Yellow fever virus, including 77 sequences from a recent outbreak at the state of Minas Gerais, southeast Brazil. Therefore, the present work uses robust bioinformatics approaches for the identification of a multi-epitope vaccine against the Yellow fever virus. Our results indicate that the identified multi-epitope vaccine might stimulate humoral and cellular immune responses and could be a potential vaccine candidate against Yellow fever virus infection. Hence, it should be subjected to further experimental validations.

Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

Keywords:

• Immunoinformatics
• flavivirus
• multi-epitope vaccine
• vaccine
• Yellow fever virus

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the collaboration and assistance of all team members and the Brazilian funding agencies CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Brasil) and CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stephane Fraga de Oliveira Tosta

SFOT, ST conceived, designed the protocol; MS, SFOT, AKJ, RK and AS collected and analysed initial data; SFOT, ST, and MG wrote the paper; ST, MG, LCJA coordinated and led the entire project: JX revised for English correction, ST, LCJA, SCS, and MG Cross-checked all data and its analysis: All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Mariana Santana Passos

SFOT, ST conceived, designed the protocol; MS, SFOT, AKJ, RK and AS collected and analysed initial data; SFOT, ST, and MG wrote the paper; ST, MG, LCJA coordinated and led the entire project: JX revised for English correction, ST, LCJA, SCS, and MG Cross-checked all data and its analysis: All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Rodrigo Kato

SFOT, ST conceived, designed the protocol; MS, SFOT, AKJ, RK and AS collected and analysed initial data; SFOT, ST, and MG wrote the paper; ST, MG, LCJA coordinated and led the entire project: JX revised for English correction, ST, LCJA, SCS, and MG Cross-checked all data and its analysis: All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Álvaro Salgado

SFOT, ST conceived, designed the protocol; MS, SFOT, AKJ, RK and AS collected and analysed initial data; SFOT, ST, and MG wrote the paper; ST, MG, LCJA coordinated and led the entire project: JX revised for English correction, ST, LCJA, SCS, and MG Cross-checked all data and its analysis: All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Joilson Xavier

SFOT, ST conceived, designed the protocol; MS, SFOT, AKJ, RK and AS collected and analysed initial data; SFOT, ST, and MG wrote the paper; ST, MG, LCJA coordinated and led the entire project: JX revised for English correction, ST, LCJA, SCS, and MG Cross-checked all data and its analysis: All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Arun Kumar Jaiswal

SFOT, ST conceived, designed the protocol; MS, SFOT, AKJ, RK and AS collected and analysed initial data; SFOT, ST, and MG wrote the paper; ST, MG, LCJA coordinated and led the entire project: JX revised for English correction, ST, LCJA, SCS, and MG Cross-checked all data and its analysis: All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Siomar C. Soares

SFOT, ST conceived, designed the protocol; MS, SFOT, AKJ, RK and AS collected and analysed initial data; SFOT, ST, and MG wrote the paper; ST, MG, LCJA coordinated and led the entire project: JX revised for English correction, ST, LCJA, SCS, and MG Cross-checked all data and its analysis: All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Marta Giovanetti

SFOT, ST conceived, designed the protocol; MS, SFOT, AKJ, RK and AS collected and analysed initial data; SFOT, ST, and MG wrote the paper; ST, MG, LCJA coordinated and led the entire project: JX revised for English correction, ST, LCJA, SCS, and MG Cross-checked all data and its analysis: All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Sandeep Tiwari

SFOT, ST conceived, designed the protocol; MS, SFOT, AKJ, RK and AS collected and analysed initial data; SFOT, ST, and MG wrote the paper; ST, MG, LCJA coordinated and led the entire project: JX revised for English correction, ST, LCJA, SCS, and MG Cross-checked all data and its analysis: All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Luiz Carlos Junior Alcantara

SFOT, ST conceived, designed the protocol; MS, SFOT, AKJ, RK and AS collected and analysed initial data; SFOT, ST, and MG wrote the paper; ST, MG, LCJA coordinated and led the entire project: JX revised for English correction, ST, LCJA, SCS, and MG Cross-checked all data and its analysis: All authors read and approved the manuscript.