Multi-epitope vaccine design against Monkeypox virus: An immunoinformatics approach

Area of Science:

• Computational biology
• Vaccinology
• Immunoinformatics

Background:

• The global Monkeypox virus (MPXV) outbreak necessitates novel vaccine development.
• An in-silico immunoinformatics approach was utilized to design a multi-epitope vaccine against MPXV.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design a potential multi-epitope vaccine construct against the Monkeypox virus.
• To evaluate the immunogenic and structural properties of the designed vaccine candidate through computational methods.

Main Methods:

• Selected the IMV heparin binding surface protein (H3L) of MPV as the vaccine target.
• Predicted and evaluated B and T cell epitopes for toxicity, allergenicity, antigenicity, and population coverage.
• Assembled a multi-epitope construct, modeled its 3D structure, and performed molecular docking with TLR3 receptor.
• Cloned the construct into E. coli plasmid pET-28b (+) to assess expression and immune activation potential.

Main Results:

• The H3L protein showed 92.22% sequence conservation across MPXV isolates, indicating suitability as a broad-spectrum target.
• Molecular docking and dynamics analyses confirmed the vaccine construct's stability and strong binding affinity with TLR3.
• Predicted immune stimulation indicated robust humoral and cellular responses, with potential for immunological memory.

Conclusions:

• A potential multi-epitope vaccine construct for effective monkeypox prevention was proposed.
• Further in-vivo and in-vitro studies are required to validate the biological efficacy and safety of the designed vaccine.