Synthetic rational design of live-attenuated Zika viruses based on a computational model.

ABSTRACT: Many viruses of the Flaviviridae family, including the Zika virus (ZIKV), are human pathogens of significant public health concerns. Despite extensive research, there are currently no approved vaccines available for ZIKV and specifically no live-attenuated Zika vaccine. In this current study, we suggest a novel computational algorithm for generating live-attenuated vaccines via the introduction of silent mutation into regions that undergo selection for strong or weak local RNA folding or into regions that exhibit medium levels of sequence conservation. By implementing our approach to the ZIKV genome, we demonstrated strong correlation between the degree of conserved RNA local energy disruption and replicative ability of the viruses in Vero cells. In vivo analysis in the AG129 mouse model d

SUBMITTER: Roopin M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11724363 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature