Rational in-silico design of a multi-epitope vaccine against human Rhinovirus an immune simulation and molecular dynamics simulation approach

Background

The Rhinovirus (HRV) belongs to the Enterovirus genus in the Picornaviridae family and is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus. Commonly accountable for respiratory tract infections, which include common colds. It is yet unknown how to treat HRV infection.

Methods

This study employed robust immunoinformatics techniques to predict the B-cell, CTL, and HTL epitopes on the Genome Polyprotein. Both non-allergic and antigenic epitopes were chosen in order to produce a subunit vaccine that patients could receive.

Results

The vaccine's immunogenicity score was reported as − 4.46838, and its antigenic ratio yielded values of 0.5625 and 0.450999, respectively, using ERRAT, Rampage, and ProSa-web servers to validate the vaccine model. Consequently, the Z-score was − 6.85, the ERRAT score was 90.432, and the Ramachandran plot value was generated as 86.0%. When TLR-7 was utilized to dock the vaccine, it revealed a good interaction with 151 non-bonding components, 7 hydrogen bonds, and 1 salt bridge. Using MD modeling, the stability of the docked complex was assessed. The vaccine had a GC content of 48.4% and a CAI value of 0.99% when it was reverse-translated. To implement the concept in a wet laboratory, the reverse translated vaccine sequence was cloned in pET28a (+) vector.

Conclusion

The vaccine developed in this work has to be experimentally validated in order to ensure its efficacy against the disease. The final application of this new research will be in the treatment of HRV-related illnesses as well as in upcoming experimental testing to verify the safety and immunogenicity of the suggested vaccine design.