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AstraMEV (AI-Guided Structural Assembly of Multi-Epitope Vaccines) Against Infectious Bronchitis Virus.
Supantha Dey1,2, Hannah Gates1,2, Rahil Salehi1,2
1Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, United States.
Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling
|October 24, 2025
Summary
AstraMEV, a new platform, designs vaccines against infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) by identifying conserved epitopes. This computational approach optimizes vaccine stability and immunogenicity for poultry protection.
Area of Science:
- Veterinary Virology
- Computational Biology
- Vaccine Design
Background:
- Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) poses a significant threat to the poultry industry due to its high mutation rate and genetic diversity.
- Current vaccine strategies face challenges in keeping pace with IBV evolution.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce AstraMEV, a predictive structural immunoinformatic platform for designing novel IBV vaccines.
- To identify conserved epitopes on IBV nucleocapsid (N) and spike (S) proteins for vaccine development.
- To computationally design and optimize multiepitope vaccine constructs for enhanced immunogenicity and stability.
Main Methods:
- Genomic screening of 56 IBV genomes to identify conserved epitopes.
- AI-driven design using RFdiffusion and ProteinMPNN for vaccine constructs (SmallTope, BigTope).
- Molecular dynamics simulations and Poisson-Boltzmann calculations to assess structural stability, chTLR4 binding, and binding enthalpy.
Main Results:
- Identification of conserved epitopes from IBV N and S proteins.
- Design of two stable and potentially immunogenic multiepitope vaccine constructs.
- Confirmation of construct stability and binding to chicken Toll-like receptor 4 (chTLR4).
- Computational identification of variant epitopes with improved binding enthalpy.
Conclusions:
- AstraMEV demonstrates the feasibility of computational immunoinformatics for targeted vaccine design against IBV.
- The developed vaccine constructs show potential for next-generation IBV vaccines.
- This approach has broader implications for combating other rapidly evolving pathogens.
