Design of an Epitope-Based Peptide Vaccine Against Dengue Virus Isolate from Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India

Dengue outbreaks are a serious public health concern that occurs on a regular basis in various locations of India. According to the Government of India's National Center for Vector-Borne Disease Control, a total of 1,23,106 dengue cases were identified in India as of October 2021. The currently available dengue vaccine was found to be ineffective against all serotypes of the virus. Dengue virus serotype 2 was reported to be the sole predominant serotype in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India. An epitope-based peptide vaccine is believed to be safe and effective against all serotypes of the dengue virus. In this work, an epitope-based peptide vaccine based on envelope protein against the dengue virus was developed using the reverse vaccinology method. T-cell epitopes present in the envelope protein were screened using different immunoinformatic tools. Epitopes predicted by all servers were chosen and additionally picked out on the grounds of their antigenic reactivity, immunogenicity, toxicity, and allergenicity assessment. Three potent T cell epitopes as IVQPENLEY, ILIGVVITW, and DTAWDFGSL were screened, which binds with HLA-B*35:01, HLA-B*58:01, HLA-A*26:01 alleles, respectively. To build a 3D structure model of epitopes and alleles, the PepstrMod and Swiss-Model servers were used. Predicted epitopes and HLA alleles were docked using the HPEPDOCK server to confirm binding ability. These anticipated epitopes were found to cover the greatest number of populations in India and around the world. These identified epitopes have a high potential for eliciting an immune response in the development of a vaccine against the dengue virus, while further experimental validation is required for final confirmation.