Rational Design of Peptide Vaccines against the Zika Virus through sequence Descriptors: Techniques and Problems

The sudden emergence of an epidemic of Zika virus infections in South America has raised concerns of its virulence and transmission potential, especially in view of mass gatherings at carnivals, Olympic Games, Hajj and others within this year [1]; the as yet unproven link between the Zika epidemic and heightened cases of microcephaly among newborns for which the World Health Organization (WHO) have declared on February 1, 2016 the suspected association of the virus to cases of microcephaly and Guillain-Barre disease to be Public Health Emergency of International Concern [2] has added to the anxieties. The main vector of the Zika virus is the Aedes aegypti mosquito prevalent in tropical countries but whose range is increasing with the effects of global warming, recognized as causing shifts in distribution of vector-borne diseases [3]; spread of the virus through mass gatherings to other countries becomes an additional worrying possibility. The issues here are of serious concern since the Aedes aegypti mosquito is also a primary carrier of the dengue virus and Brazil has not had much success in controlling that [4]. Coming soon after the scare of Ebola virus, and with the background of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the MERS and SARS epidemics, the near-pandemic of H5N1 bird flu and fatalities associated with the H7N9, the Zika virus epidemic has focused questions on containment and mitigation of viral activity and further zoonotic issues that may arise.