Hubei Key Laboratory of Agricultural Bioinformatics, College of Informatics, Huazhong Agricultural University (HZAU), Wuhan, People's Republic of China.
Department of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, Government College University Faisalabad (GCUF), Faisalabad, Pakistan.
J Transl Med. 2018 Oct 27;16(1):298. doi: 10.1186/s12967-018-1672-7.
Chikungunya virus (CHIKV), causes massive outbreaks of chikungunya infection in several regions of Asia, Africa and Central/South America. Being positive sense RNA virus, CHIKV replication within the host resulting in its genome mutation and led to difficulties in creation of vaccine, drugs and treatment strategies. Vector control strategy has been a gold standard to combat spreading of CHIKV infection, but to eradicate a species from the face of earth is not an easy task. Therefore, alongside vector control, there is a dire need to prevent the infection through vaccine as well as through antiviral strategies.
This study was designed to find out conserved B cell and T cell epitopes of CHIKV structural proteins through immuno-informatics and computational approaches, which may play an important role in evoking the immune responses against CHIKV.
Several conserved cytotoxic T-lymphocyte epitopes, linear and conformational B cell epitopes were predicted for CHIKV structural polyprotein and their antigenicity was calculated. Among B-cell epitopes "PPFGAGRPGQFGDI" showed a high antigenicity score and it may be highly immunogenic. In case of T cell epitopes, MHC class I peptides 'TAECKDKNL' and MHC class II peptides 'VRYKCNCGG' were found extremely antigenic.
The study led to the discovery of various epitopes, conserved among various strains belonging to different countries. The potential antigenic epitopes can be successfully utilized in designing novel vaccines for combating and eradication of CHIKV disease.
基孔肯雅热病毒（CHIKV）在亚洲、非洲和中/南美洲的多个地区引发了大规模的基孔肯雅热感染爆发。作为正链 RNA 病毒，CHIKV 在宿主内的复制导致其基因组发生突变，这给疫苗、药物和治疗策略的研发带来了困难。病媒控制策略一直是对抗 CHIKV 感染传播的金标准，但要从地球上消灭一个物种并非易事。因此，除了病媒控制之外，还迫切需要通过疫苗以及抗病毒策略来预防感染。
本研究旨在通过免疫信息学和计算方法发现 CHIKV 结构蛋白中的保守 B 细胞和 T 细胞表位，这些表位可能在引发针对 CHIKV 的免疫反应方面发挥重要作用。
针对 CHIKV 结构多蛋白，预测了多个保守的细胞毒性 T 淋巴细胞表位、线性和构象 B 细胞表位，并计算了它们的抗原性。在 B 细胞表位中，“PPFGAGRPGQFGDI”表现出较高的抗原性评分，可能具有高度免疫原性。对于 T 细胞表位，MHC Ⅰ类肽“TAECKDKNL”和 MHC Ⅱ类肽“VRYKCNCGG”被发现具有极强的抗原性。
该研究发现了各种表位，这些表位在不同国家的不同菌株中具有保守性。潜在的抗原性表位可成功用于设计针对 CHIKV 疾病的新型疫苗。
