Study of B cell epitope conserved region of the Zika virus envelope glycoprotein to develop multi-strain vaccine

ABSTRACT

A Zika virus (ZIKV) infection causes severe clinical manifestations, both in newborn baby and adult. It was consideredas the public health emergency by the World Health Organization in 2016. Until now, there is no approved drug orvaccine for the treatment or prevention of multi-strain ZIKV infection. The present work attempts to identify theB cell epitope conserved region of ZIKV envelope glycoprotein through an intensive in silico study. A total of 363ZIKV strains was retrieved from the National Center of Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database, then aligned toobtain the conserved region of ZIKV glycoprotein. The interaction between the conserved region with Axl receptortyrosine kinase, a ZIKV receptor on the host cell, has been evaluated through molecular docking approach. TheB cell epitope was identified using the immune epitope database (IEDB) web server. This study revealed that theconserved region of ZIKV envelope glycoprotein interacts with Asp9, Glu12, Glu40, Asp177, Glu243, and Glu245of Axl receptor. Two sequences in ZIKV envelope glycoprotein, “ISDSDSRCPTQGEALKQSDTQY” (22-mer) and“SQHSGMGETDERAKVETPNSPRAEATL” (27-mer), are identified as B cell epitopes. Further studies are necessaryto confirm their possibility as the potential ZIKV multi-strain vaccine in the future.