An Immuno-Bioinformatic Analysis of Zika virus (ZIKV) Envelope EProtein

By means of the combined use of B cell epitope prediction (Bepipred) and measurement of information entropy (H) in envelope (E) protein of Zika virus (ZIKV) isolated from infected humans, five amino acid sequences were identified as containing probable epitopes. These five predicted epitopic sequences contained nine amino acid positions where H>0.0. It is proposed that some of the observed entropic positions may reflect mutational escape of the ZIKV from the immune response of the infected host and that such information, applied together with conventional epitope prediction, can guide and facilitate design of anti-ZIKV vaccines.