Designing of Nucleocapsid Protein Based Novel Multi-epitope Vaccine Against SARS-COV-2 Using Immunoinformatics Approach. 2021

Janish Kumar, and Rahila Qureshi, and Someswar R Sagurthi, and Insaf Ahmed Qureshi
Department of Biotechnology & Bioinformatics, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Prof. C.R. Rao Road, Hyderabad, 500046 India.

The COVID-19 disease is caused by SARS-CoV-2 and spreading rapidly worldwide with extremely high infection rate. Since effective and specific vaccine is not available to combat the deadly COVID-19, the objective of our study was to design a multi-epitope vaccine using immunoinformatics approach with translational implications. Nucleocapsid (N) protein of SARS-CoV-2 is stable, conserved and highly immunogenic along with being less prone to mutations during infection, which makes it a suitable candidate for designing vaccine. In our study, B- and T-cells epitopes were identified from N protein and screened based on crucial parameters to design the multi-epitope vaccine construct. Additionally, human beta-defensin-2 was incorporated into the vaccine construct as an adjuvant along with suitable linkers followed by its further evaluation based on crucial parameters including allergenicity, antigenicity, stability etc. Combined major histocompatibility complexes (MHC-I and MHC-II) binding epitopes presented broader population coverage of the vaccine throughout the world. The three-dimensional structure of vaccine candidate implied strong interaction with toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) using molecular docking. The vaccine-TLR3 complex was observed to be highly stable during simulation and electrostatic free energy was foremost contributor for stabilization of the structure. Subsequently, in silico cloning of vaccine candidate was carried out to generate the construct into pET-28a(+) expression vector succeeded by its virtual confirmation. Altogether, our results advocate that the designed vaccine candidate could be an effective and promising weapon to fight with COVID-19 infection worldwide.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries

Related Publications

Janish Kumar, and Rahila Qureshi, and Someswar R Sagurthi, and Insaf Ahmed Qureshi
January 2022, BioImpacts : BI,
Janish Kumar, and Rahila Qureshi, and Someswar R Sagurthi, and Insaf Ahmed Qureshi
January 2022, Journal of biomolecular structure & dynamics,
Janish Kumar, and Rahila Qureshi, and Someswar R Sagurthi, and Insaf Ahmed Qureshi
January 2024, Current computer-aided drug design,
Janish Kumar, and Rahila Qureshi, and Someswar R Sagurthi, and Insaf Ahmed Qureshi
December 2020, International journal of biological macromolecules,
Janish Kumar, and Rahila Qureshi, and Someswar R Sagurthi, and Insaf Ahmed Qureshi
November 2020, International journal of biological macromolecules,
Janish Kumar, and Rahila Qureshi, and Someswar R Sagurthi, and Insaf Ahmed Qureshi
January 2021, In silico pharmacology,
Janish Kumar, and Rahila Qureshi, and Someswar R Sagurthi, and Insaf Ahmed Qureshi
October 2020, Scientific reports,
Janish Kumar, and Rahila Qureshi, and Someswar R Sagurthi, and Insaf Ahmed Qureshi
June 2020, Journal of medical virology,
Janish Kumar, and Rahila Qureshi, and Someswar R Sagurthi, and Insaf Ahmed Qureshi
August 2020, bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology,
Janish Kumar, and Rahila Qureshi, and Someswar R Sagurthi, and Insaf Ahmed Qureshi
January 2024, Future science OA,
Copied contents to your clipboard!